The one-hundred foot journey has brought him fine training, now he can take flight. After a few years, he decides to open his own and is approached by a benefactor who offers him reduced rent in an upscale location near the Panthéon. Hassan starts as a sous chef with a couple of smaller restaurants. Chardin’s Grey Partridge Pear and Snare on Stone Table, one of Hassan’s favorite paintings.
After three years under her wings, Hassan is ready to move on. Towards the end of his apprenticeship, Hassan is left on his own to create recipes for pigeons, gigot, and hare, all to the satisfaction of Chef Mallory. Thus, Hassan takes the one hundred-foot journey and crosses the street to stay at Le Saule Pleureur, learn all he can from the great Chef and answer ‘the irrefutable call of destiny’ to be one himself. After many animated and almost cartoonish conflicts between Madame Mallory and Hassan’s Papa, Abbas Haji, both concede to the reconciliatory move of allowing Hassan to become Chef Mallory’s apprentice. Her restaurant is a haute French culinary establishment that plays Satie in contrast to the Indian music from a loudspeaker at the Haji’s. She is the proprietor of the small country hotel, Le Saule Pleureur. Hassan soon is jealously noticed by the veteran, feisty two-star French Chef Madame Mallory across the street. The boisterous family finds a home in the resort village Lumière near the Alps and starts its own restaurant Maison Mumbai, serving Indian dishes and bringing a welcome change to the villagers. They first land in London, later immigrate to France. After the Partition and the death of his grandfather, religious and political turmoils push his family out of the country. Hassan is endowed with an exceptional gift of culinary talent. I suspect my destiny was written from the very start, for my first sensation of life was the smell of machli ka salan, a spicy fish curry, rising through the floorboards to the cot… Growing up immersed in the savoury aroma of Indian food and spices, It tells the story of Hassan Haji, a Muslim boy who lives above his grandfather’s restaurant in then Bombay and how he ultimately ends up as a three-star chef in Paris. This delightful, breezy read is that speedy transit. What better transport is there than a light vehicle that provides a fun and wild ride, taking me out of Midnight’s Children‘s Bombay to my next destination, Paris in July? Thanks to Karen of Book Bath for organizing the trip.
How do you get to Paris from Bombay? Food, Food, Food.
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