Luckily, food is also one of the most important pleasures of human beings, mainly because eating involves all the senses. Food pleasure may be perceived as a primal pleasure, which was reprehended in old times since this kind of pleasure embodies the weakness of the man, the inability to resist the temptation. On another hand, food has always been an important part of all kind of celebrations such as birthdays, Christmas or weddings. Even in the Bible, a lamb was sacrificed to celebrate Easter. This shows that food pleasure has always been assumed and since we have the possibility to enjoy it every single day, why should we do without?
When I mention food pleasure, one of the first excerpt coming to my mind, as long as literature is concerned, is the episode of the madeleine. The French writer Marcel Proust published In Search of Lost Time (in French A la Recherche du Temps Perdu) in 1922 as an English version, which contains the famous episode of the madeleine. In this extract the pleasure provided by the taste of the madeleine soaked in tea reminds the character of sweet memories from his childood he had forgotten.
"No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea."
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time
The way he describes the taste of the tea and the crumbs in his mouth almost convey the same pleasure to the reader who perfectly imagines how it can taste...
This excerpt shows how strong food pleasure can be and the vertues it may have. In this special case, it worked as a reminder of past, a revelation of memories that had been erased.
*just in case you want to try the pleasure of homemade madeleines
