Apricots on the Nile - A Memoir with Recipes by Colette Rossant

 

 

 

"Apricots on the Nile - A Memoir with Recipes" by Colette Rossant

 This is the first of three memoirs from this writer. The first is a glimpse into the life of a five year old when she moves from Paris to Cairo in 1937 to live with her father’s Egyptian Family. When her Parisian mother leaves her with her grandparents she experiences a wealthy household, with servants and a clan of aunts, uncles and cousins. She haunts the kitchen and is steeped in the spices, cooking and traditions of a now lost age. Spice filled “care packages” supplied by Ahmed the cook, the sweet toothed grandfather and stern shopper grandmother, their gatherings, family spats and marriages and rebellions are all here; they all seem to centre around food. The book is filled with tantalising recipes and descriptions which make the palette ache.

 It invokes a lost Egypt through a child’s eyes; then she leaves for Paris at fifteen, showing the contrast not only with the family and culture but also the food. She returns thirty years later to re-trace her steps. It’s funny, charming and in places moving. A small book (172 pages), it was covered by BBC radio in a recent book reading series – if you like memoirs and recipes, the early life of this cookery writer, travel writer and journalist is worth a read.