Provençal Cooking

by Mary Ann Caws

A savory tribute to the simple joys of life in Provence―great company, delicious food. More than thirty years ago, Mary Ann Caws, then a young professor, moved to Provence to translate the poetry of Provençal poet René Char. What sounded like a simple romantic sojourn turned into a journey of self-discovery on the joys of living simply and enjoying the maxims of the Provençal "good life"―good company, good food, and great wine, preferably from your neighbor's vineyard. There was little else in the way of material goods. Her little cottage, her cabanon , had no running water, no heat, no electricity. When she arrived that first day with her young family in tow, the house was even missing a wall and almost half of the roof. The rest of the place seemed held together only by weeds and brambles. Mary Ann and her family were never happier. The beauty of the olive trees, cherry orchards, marketplace and vineyards dictated the rhythm of their new lives. The process of preparing food and then sharing it with friends and neighbors came to embody the essence of their existence on the hillside of Mount Vertaux. Now, in this delightful and lyric meditation on Provence and its food, Mary Ann invites you to sit down at her table and share in some of her favorite recipes, the recipes of her neighbors, and her delicious memories of life in France.

Genres: Cookbooks

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 17, 2008

About the author

Mary Ann Caws is an American author, translator, art historian and literary critic.
She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and on the film faculty. She is an expert on Surrealism and modern English and French literature, having written biographies of Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Henry James. She works on the interrelations of visual art and literary texts, has written biographies of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and edited the diaries, letters, and source material of Joseph Cornell. She has also written on André Breton, Robert Desnos, René Char, Yves Bonnefoy, Robert Motherwell, and Edmond Jabès. She served as the senior editor for the HarperCollins World Reader, and edited anthologies including Manifesto: A Century of Isms, Surrealism, and the Yale Anthology of 20th-Century French Poetry. Among others, she has translated Stéphane Mallarmé, Tristan Tzara, Pierre Reverdy, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Robert Desnos, and René Char.
Among the positions she has held are President, Association for Study of Dada and Surrealism, 1971–75 and President, Modern Language Association of America, 1983, Academy of Literary Studies, 1984–85, and the American Comparative Literature Association, 1989-91.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
In October 2004, she published her autobiography, To the Boathouse: a Memoir (University Alabama Press), and in November 2008, a cookbook memoir: Provençal Cooking: Savoring the Simple Life in France (Pegasus Books).
She was married to Peter Caws and is the mother of Hilary Caws-Elwitt and of Matthew Caws, lead singer of the band Nada Surf. She is married to Dr. Boyce Bennett; they live in New York City.

Reviews

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, Mary Ann Caws, is a renowned scholar, translator of the great contemporary Provençal poet Rene Char (with whom she and her family developed a close personal friendship), who has also published non-scholarly works that are light musings and memories. This is one such gem, filled with memories of life and food and friendships in the Vaucluse region of Provence* from the 30 years Caws and her family spent summers in a petit cabanon among the herbs and olive trees. I think it perfectly described by Caws herself:

In Provence, it isn't about business that takes time: it is, as one of my friends puts it, watching the mountain grow. Or just the light shifting. So this is as much a little book abut being as about cooking.

Yes, there are recipes but not really in the traditional sense. Two-thirds of the book are reminiscences, more or less sequential, of Provence, bringing it to life. The short section describing the various outdoor markets in the region and her shopping habits at each had me there with her and long to experience them myself. I adore outdoor food markets, making a point of visiting them on my travels all over the world. As I read, I felt myself entering this quieter, slower paced world with Caws and her family, leaving the hustle and bustle of NYC behind. Food is of course the heart of every single day, of all the friendships. I was fortunate in my youth to be invited into a French farm family home in rural France for their Sunday dinner. I've never forgotten a second of that day, 40+ years later. I saw my memories of that meal reflected here.

The recipes are more the way you would tell someone how to make a dish rather than exact measurements and timing. It's cooking, not following recipes (although there are a few). I was reminded of the essence of provençal cooking (I have spent time in Provence): tomatoes, garlic, olives and olive oil, fresh herbs are the foundations. I'm even going to cook from it immediately - pencil asparagus cooked in a skillet with olive oil and onions, then covered with parmesan cheese and stuck under the broiler until the cheese melts and turns crusty brown.

This was a mini-vacation of a book, one I will continue to treasure.

In the daytime, there are more likely to be motorbikes or sturdy walkers, ready for the climb uphill. But as dark falls, the atmosphere changes, and the place grows silent. Perhaps you can just hear some faint fall of a twig in the wind. Most often, though, it is peaceful, among the trees, and happily, I tend to forget, in such a mellow mood, the many smallnesses of a Provençal village. They are in any case balanced by the collective joys, such as dinners shared under the overwhelming stars.

*This is not the Provence of Peter Mayle really, but closer to the Alps and central France - filled with mountains and hills, wild gorges, stunning scenery, and remnants of Ancient Rome. It is closer to the Provence of Julia Child, Richard Olney, Elizabeth David, and M.F.K. Fisher as described in Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste - all of whom are mentioned in passing for their food and cooking influence on Caws. This is also the region familiar to fans of the Tour de France as the toughest mountain in the race was basically in Caws' backyard.

[Penny]

This is a little treasure of a book, mostly memoir, but in it's final third a narrative cookbook with simple, delicious sounding recipes from the author's time in her Provençal cabonon. Mary Ann Caws was the friend and translator of the great French poet Rene Char, and her little book is laced with bits of his poems and glimpses into her family's magical life on the hillside of Mount Ventoux, surely one of the most lovely places in all of France, if not the world. The book itself is a poem and one of the most lovely ones I've read in ages, with its vignettes of life among the olive trees and vineyards. Definitely one I will treasure for a long time to come.

[Juliette Morris Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely little book, but difficult to pin down in terms of what she was trying to 'say.' It could be seen as a cookbook, done in the Provencal way of 'handful of this, stir until it smells done...', but with stories interspersed. However, it feels - unfinished to me. Very pretty, however, and something nice to read, say, while on vacation.