Samuel Chamberlain's "Clémentine in the Kitchen"

January 6, 2025 5:50 AM

Would Clémentine, the native Burgundian, give us splurges such as this? Could our figures and my pocketbook take it? The answer, we soon found out, was magnificently in the affirmative. Clémentine was a Cordon Bleu in the best tradition. My son Phinney and I began to dream of fabulous banquets, and I began to recall uneasily that one gets gout in Burgundy. Luckily there were two deterrents to shield us from mad, headlong gourmandise -- Clémentine's mastery of simple dishes, and Mrs. Beck's insistence upon a sane and healthy fare. Regardless of our curiosity about exotic dishes and our desire to sample all of Clémentine's sauces, our daily menu contained the same well-balanced fare that prevailed in countless conventional French homes. We had no huge dinners à la Papa Bellon. My unruffled wife saw to that. Our daily living was based, I suppose, upon no more than twenty-five classic French dishes, all of which Clémentine handled with the sure hand of a master. They are elemental dishes throughout France, as fundamental as bread, cheese, and wine. They vary, of course, from one family to the next. But the following list, taken from the most thumb-worn pages in Clémentine's notebook is typical, and eloquent, of the way a civilized French family lives.

First published in 1943 under the pen name Phineas Beck, Clémentine in the Kitchen tells the true story of the Chamberlain family’s French cook, Clémentine, whom the family first meets while living in a small village just outside of Paris. When the Chamberlain’s get transferred to Massachusetts, Clémentine is invited to move with them – a big decision for the petite woman who has never left her birthplace. Clémentine is a natural in the kitchen in France and the family cannot help but rave about her cuisine to everyone they know. In America though, she is a fish out of water, not understanding the language or the shopping style of her new country. Ingredients are different, convenience foods are popular and daily outdoor market shopping is replaced with weekly trips to that strange place called the indoor supermarket.

How does Clémentine cope with all this change? We don’t want to spoil it for you, so you have to read it to find out. But what we can say is that this book is funny and charming and filled with recipes. The surprise ending, cinematic storyline and ever engaging character of Clémentine makes it seem like a perfect candidate for movie adaptation and it offers the added benefit of learning some of the basics of French cooking. All around an engaging and highly original read that we thoroughly enjoyed.

(And, no, not that Samuel Chamberlain.)

The book is discussed in Laura Shapiro's Something from the Oven.

posted by Lemkin (10 comments total)

Thanks for this! I will read it next!

(I just got a page-turner for my Kindle, and I am reading faster than ever despite Cubital Tunnel Syndrome that makes holding the tablet so painful.)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:37 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

This is a very charming book, though it feels very dated now. And, not to burst anyone's bubble, but Clementine is a fictional character created by Chamberlain.
posted by briank at 6:56 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

I think Shapiro settles on “part-fact, part-fiction”.

In any event, Clémentine is real to those who believe in her.
posted by Lemkin at 7:18 AM on January 6

Oh...I just bought the book because of this post, and I do feel like my bubble is a bit burst.
posted by PussKillian at 8:56 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

You will enjoy it anyway. I really liked it. Laura Shapiro's books are also very good, if you are interested in a history of modern cooking, particularly "Perfection Salad".
posted by briank at 11:01 AM on January 6 [3 favorites]

All-italic posts are very hard to read.

Looks interesting though!
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 11:40 AM on January 6

I read this some 40 years ago after picking it up in a second-hand bookstore. I was trying to learn how to cook well and was embarking on a short-lived restaurant career until I wised up. I still occasionally re-read it, and find it quite dated but also charming - Chamberlain, I understand, was living in France pre-war as a representative of Gourmet magazine and this was a memoir. I recall some sweet ink illustrations.

If you do read the book, I remember especially the chapter where Clementine, having moved to the U.S., excitedly discovers snails in their garden, and places the in a cardboard box to "purge" themselves before being cooked. The cardboard softens overnight, the snails escape, and the fun begins.

I choose to remember this as an example of a time and culture that no longer exists, as though I were a bit of an anthropologist. Chamberlain is annoyingly patronizing toward Clementine, and indeed toward the French in general, but probably most Americans interacting with local French would have done the same. There were also times he was seemingly in awe of the French system of food and drink, to wit the system for buying barrels of wine from vineyards for home consumption seemed to fascinate him in its efficiency.

There was an obvious class difference, as might have existed in a 1940 Boston household with a cook, with the overlay of the war, and it's just part of the flavor of the book.
posted by citygirl at 7:13 PM on January 6 [2 favorites]

I’ll definitely still read it, and I’m already a Laura Shapiro fan. I don’t actually cook all that much but I enjoy reading about food history and cooking.
posted by PussKillian at 8:03 PM on January 6

Do you recommend the original or revised edition? From a description of the 1988 revision, it sounds like the recipes were edited by the author's daughter to be simpler and more typical of the family's daily fare.
posted by gatheringwater at 10:32 PM on January 6

This looks promising!
posted by mumimor at 7:58 AM on January 7