A pleasant thing happened to me the other
day. Let me explain. For some months I have been a really pathetic
member of an online book club called Kitchen Reader whose members review books about cooking (not so much cookbooks as food
writing). The reason I have been so poor
at this is all the books I have attempted to get hold of have been published in
America and either very expensive or take ages to get here. (I’m waiting for one now and it’s been quite a
while.)
A lady called Sarah contacted me on behalf
of the club and asked if I still wanted to be a member bearing in mind my non
existent input and I explained the situation.
Guess what she did!! Only went
and sent me a book she had finished reading all
the way from Hong Kong , that’s what! What a lovely lady and what
an excellent book.
“Season to Taste ~ how I lost my sense of
smell and found my way” is Molly Birnbaum’s account of her sudden and complete loss
of her sense of smell due to a traffic accident. At the time of the accident she was working
in kitchens and about to start training in earnest at The Culinary Institute of
America. She writes of how it slowly dawned of her that she couldn’t smell, of her worries and fears and the
implication it had on her life including her exciting career choice. It isn’t a tear jerker tho', its fascinating.
In an attempt to understand her situation
(and possibly to write a book!) Molly speaks to neurologists (including Oliver
Sacks), perfumiers, attends perfumery lessons in Grasse, speaks to artists who
create scent collages and symphonies and to flavourists who create tastes by
mixing different chemicals to reproduce natural flavours or even create new
ones. Flavourists are essential to the
processed food business.
I find it hard to imagine a life without the
sense of smell because I think it often runs in the background of our lives
informing us without our actually noticing.
Since reading this book I often have a good old sniff to see what I can
smell! Sometimes I am surprised at what
is going on olfactorily without my being consciously aware of it. At the same time it is easy for me (after
cheffing for over 30 years) to realise how great a loss it would be in the kitchen.
Happily Molly gets her sense of smell back,
if that isn’t too much of a spoiler, but her journey makes for a fascinating
read.
Season to Taste was recommended to Kitchen
Reader by Katherine Martinelli whose interesting blog I shall be having a wander
round shortly.
Two Coincidences …
1. Sarah from Kitchen Reader is not alone in
her loveliness. A day or two before I
received the above from Hong
Kong I received a
surprise book from my friend Bob in New Hampshire U.S.
2. “Season to Taste” mentions Jack Turner's “Spice” ~ I had
never heard of either of these books, received both as gifts from foreign parts in the same week and they are inter-related.
