Almost French: Food, Class, and Gender in the American Expatriate Memoir

Abstract

This chapter examines the significance of food references in three contemporary memoirs of life in France: Harriet Welty Rochefort’s two memoirs French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French (1997) and French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris (2001), and Suzy Gershman’s C’est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and—Voila!—Becomes Almost French (2004). The two authors portray France as a place where individual Americans are able to live a richer, freer, and more authentic life than in the United States and, in the process, become a more sophisticated and fulfilled version of themselves. The argument made in this chapter is that this portrayal is both supported and contradicted by references to food. The references serve the double function of making the lifestyle in the memoirs seem at once accessible and inaccessible to readers. In the memoirs, the mastery of French cuisine and dining rituals are described as important steps in the two authors’ inner journeys toward a more authentic sense of self.’ What they eat is presented as the result of a personal choice of moving to France, a reflection of their individual taste (Clark 32). At the same time, their food preferences are socially determined. Eating like the French, both authors argue, is to become “almost French” (Gershman 222; Rochefort, French Toast 105).²