Marguerite’s Table
The Magic and Fun of Sensible Food. How to develop healthy Taste Buds.
Our Alsace-born grandmother, Grandmaman Marguerite, was a stout, stalwart, and beautiful woman with a crown of curled, lavender-scented white hair. Marguerite wasn’t raised in a fancy home, but knew about many fine things in life, such as embroidery and humble recipes for healthy, tasty, and fragrant eating and feasting. I was too young to explore beyond her living quarters, never saw it with my own eyes, but knew her sauerkraut jar lived in the cellar permanently. I recall the texture of the pickled and milky, spaghetti-thin, shredded cabbage on my plate, the miniature black juniper berries, the succulent aroma of white or multigrain crusty and rustic homemade breads, splashes of colorful berries, apples, and bananas, eggs in their shells waiting in footed cups, and the broad smiles of everyone around the table. Foods without nutritious virtues just weren’t available.
My mother used the same approach at home, and I enjoyed eating as well. However, I do not have the same fond memories of other tables.
Our other grandmother, Grandmère Pelican (named for her generosity) was an excellent chef. She preferred to prepare things she believe might be good for us, like a cooked brain, or savory sausages with potatoes. The colorless dishes came usually with the promise of a reward for eating what was on our plate. However, wy sister Bebelle and I would attempt a few polite bites, wait for her disappearance, and then make furtive swift trips to the bathroom with our plates.
What was the problem?
Her offer of a reward implied that what was on our plates wasn’t good and what was coming would be fantastic or at least better. Finely cut or mashed vibrant vegetables would have eased the experience considerably.
I also remember her perplexed comment when I wasn’t hungry for a cake, “But every child always has room for cake!” While an excellent cook herself, she had a very different — we could call it traditional — way of cooking. Looking back, her family was on the pudgy and unhealthy side.
In contrast, Marguerite’s desserts were not cakes filled with icing or whipped cream, but fruits of diverse shapes and forms, especially small fruits like raspberries, blueberries, and gooseberries in various preparations — fruit mousses, or for a rare occasion, she added a meringue topped with a touch of freshly whipped cream.
As a child, I did not like raw apples, but I did enjoy applesauce or a compote of small pieces of apple mixed with some plain yogurt. Little sugar was used in any dessert. Sweetness is an acquired taste, not a requirement. The more sweets children are given, the more likely they are to develop a dependence and craving. A lesson we have now learned from hyperactive children.
by Nicolette Francey Asselin, M.D.
In her book “Taste Buds” The Magic and Fun of Sensible Food, the author curtails objections faced by parents and offers a new bare answer, by describing her own experience, growing up in Switzerland, where she had developed sensible, sound and uncomplicated eating habits. In this narrative, the author offers simple but effective approaches and tactics to create healthy “Taste Buds,” for families and the medical profession.
