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| Alla ricerca del tempo perduto - Dalla parte di Swan / Marcel Proust |
Capita di cominciare a cominciare a leggere un romanzo e trovarsi improvvisamente immersi in un pranzo, descritto minuziosamente oppure appena accennato. Può anche capitare che sul momento non si presti molta attenzione, presi come si è dalla trama del libro ma il cibo c'è, più spesso di quanto ci si ricordi, più spesso di quanto si immagini. Senza particolari sforzi di memoria mi vengono in mente i pranzi del nostro famoso commissario Montalbano, del suo collega greco Charitos e di quello spagnolo Montalban, ma anche Simenon ha accennato più volte a qualche pranzo del suo Maigret, tanto per restare in ambito di letteratura gialla.
Se poi si pensa a Proust, le madeleine sono la prima cosa che generalmente viene in mente, a me invece viene in mente il boeuf en gelé , bue e carote in gelatina che lo scrittore ha descritto poeticamente:
“Il bue freddo con le carote fece la sua comparsa, adagiato dal Michelangelo della nostra cucina su enormi cristalli di gelatina simili a blocchi di quarzo trasparente”.
Molto attenta nel cogliere il cibo nel libro è l’art director Dianah Fried che ha riprodotto diversi pranzi di ispirazione letteraria creando le atmosfere dei romanzi, li ha fotografati e li ha raccolti nell’album"Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals edito da Harper Collins.
Ogni pranzo fotografato è descritto da un piccolo estratto del libro e riporta qualche accenno sull’ autore.
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Oliver Twist / Charles Dickens “Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: ‘Please, sir, I want some more.’” |
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| Sulla strada / Jack Kerouak |
“But I had to get going and stop moaning, so I picked up my bag, said so long to the old hotelkeeper sitting by his spittoon, and went to eat. I ate apple pie and ice cream — it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer.”
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| La metamorfosi / Franz Kafka |
“There were old, half-rotten vegetables; bones from the evening meal, covered in white sauce that had gone hard; a few raisins and almonds; some cheese that Gregor had declared inedible two days before; a dry roll and some bread spread with butter and salt....”
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| Il giovane Holden / J. D.Salinger “When I’m out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. It isn’t much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk. H. V. Caulfield. Holden Vitamin Caulfield.” |
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Il giardino segreto / Frances Hodgson Burnett “Roasted eggs were a previously unknown luxury and very hot potatoes with salt and fresh butter in them were fit for a woodland king—besides being deliciously satisfying.” |
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| Il buio oltre la siepe / Harper Lee |
“‘Gracious alive, Cal, what’s all this?’ He was staring at his breakfast plate. Calpurnia said, ‘Tom Robinson’s daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it.’ ‘You tell him I’m proud to get it—bet they don’t have chicken for breakfast at the White House.’”
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| La ragazza con il tatuaggio del drago / Stieg Larsson |
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| La campana di vetro / Sylvia Plath |
“Then I tackled the avocado and crabmeat salad...Every Sunday my grandfather used to bring me an avocado pear hidden at the bottom of his briefcase under six soiled shirts and the Sunday comic.”
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| Paura e delirio a Las Vegas / Hunter S, Thompson |
‘You goddamn honkies are all the same.’ By this time he’d opened a new bottle of tequila and was quaffing it down….He sliced the grapefruit into quarters...then into eighths...then sixteenths...then he began slashing aimlessly at the residue."
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Alice nel paese delle meraviglie /Lewis Carroll “‘Have some wine,’ the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.” |
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Heidi / Johanna Spyri “The kettle soon began to boil, and meanwhile the old man held a large piece of cheese on a long iron fork over the fire, turning it round and round till it was toasted a nice golden yellow color on each side. Heidi watched all that was going on with eager curiosity.” |
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| Mobby Dick / Herman Melville “Our appetites being sharpened by the frosty voyage, and in particular, Queequeg seeing his favorite fishing food before him, and the chowder being surpassingly excellent, we despatched it with great expedition...” |
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| Il Grande Gatsby - Scott Fitzerald “On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors-d’oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.” Credits: lifo |