The World in the Word "Sorbet" ...

We here at WCS (obviously) love food. What we also love is brain food - books!

Currently I am reading Muriel Barbery's Gourmet Rhapsody (translated by Alison Anderson), a truly delicious book. At the heart of it is the human experience of and relationship with food; and it is, like Barbery's other work, pure Poetry. I had to share the protagonists' reminiscing on sorbet, as I think it is a beautiful meditation on that special dessert we create:

In the simple word "sorbet", there is an entire world. Try saying this out loud: "Would you like an ice cream?" then immediately following with "What about a sorbet?" and notice the difference. It's a bit like saying, as you open the door, in an offhand hand way, "I'm going out to buy a cake" whereas you could very well, without being so casual or banal, have ventured, "I'm going to get some patisseries" (and mind you detach each syllable: not "patisseries" but "pa-tis-se-ries"), and, with the magic of a somewhat outdated, precious word you can create, at lesser cost, a world of old-world harmony. Thus, if you suggest "sorbet" where others might merely be thinking "ice cream" (which, very often, for the layman includes preparations made from milk or water), you have already opted for lightness, already chosen refinement, you are offering airy vistas while refusing land-bound trek with closed horizons. Airy indeed: sorbet is airy, almost immaterial, it froths ever so slightly as it makes contact with your warmth and then, vanquished, squeezed, liquified, it evaporates down your throat and all it leaves on the tongue is the charming reminiscence of the fruit and water which once flowed there ...

... Later, in the half darkness, I asked Marquet in a whipser, "How do you do it, your sorbet, the sorbet a l'orange?"
She turned halfway on the pillow; light locks of hair curled around my shoulder.
"The way my grandmother does," she answered, with a brilliant smile. (pgs 136-138)


Barbery's recognition of the history of sorbet - both the austere, refined (the "old world harmony") and familial, generational one - reminds me too of the beautiful and varied history of wine. I love that are bringing together two old foods in a dessert that has all of those qualities - both the old world harmony and the exciting familiarity of Sorbet and the wines we choose for each of ours.

Barbery's poetic, sensual explanation of sorbet also reminds me of why we brought wine to the dessert. Certainly each flavor, each vintage of wine has its own equally beautiful, sensual profile. Marrying the two makes for a truly Romantic, truly poetic dessert.

... and finally the sorbets, the triumphant synthesis of ice and fruit, robust refreshment that evaporates in your mouth in a glacier's flow.

- Patrice