"The art of cooking is a gift. Like all the rest, nobody knows where it comes from." Maryse Condé is a scholar of Francophone literature and a winner of the 2018 Alternative Nobel literature prize, but here she brings readers into the world of her passion for food, for the creative processes of cooking. In Of Morsels and Marvels, translated from the French by her husband, Richard Philcox, Condé takes readers into her memories of food, feeding others and finding joy and beauty in the act of sharing it.
The book starts with her looking back to the first kitchen that enchanted her, despite the lack of encouragement from her family to enjoy this part of life--the "cavern of Ali Baba" that "was a concoction of scents." From that starting point, she takes readers around the world and through many cultures and cuisines--across England, France, India, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia and further. And yet, throughout these journeys, what Condé continually returns to are her beliefs about food, that traditional recipes are not necessarily "sacred texts" but that instead, food was meant for creation and invention, and is its own particular route to freedom and discovery. Memoir, sensory food writing and travelogue all come together to evoke pleasure and artistry itself in Maryse Condé's Of Morsels and Marvels, bringing both dishes and landscapes to life, vividly painted by an expert hand. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer