A memory of food

Watching Out of Africa has reminded me of the other film of one of Karen Blixen's works - Babette's Feast. This is one of my all time favourite movies. And what a time to be talking about it when I am on limited rations! Babette's Feast is a short story written under her pen name of Isak Dineson. If you want an outline on the story read here. It is a beautiful story from beginning to end - a satisfying story as all short stories must be. Its central characters are women - including the unlikely character of Babette, formerly the head chef at a leading Paris restaurant. The feast for twelve people is a tour de force. When the movie was made, every country in which the movie opened enacted the feast. In Sydney, the chef who prepared the menu refused to include turtle soup - because turtles are endangered. In Chicago, a theatre staged the feast as a regular production. The difficulty for re-enactment is that Blixen gave no recipes and researchers have not been able to establish the historicity of the dishes named. This has meant quite a bit of creative licence for many of the dishes, particularly the extraordinary sarcophagi. But if you want to see what the Theater Oobleck came up with go here.