Questions and Topics for Discussion

  1. Return to Paris is at once an evocative food memoir, an adolescent girl’s poignant coming-of-age story, and travel writing set in the gastronomic capital of the world in the aftermath of World War II. Discuss the ways in which the book succeeds or fails on each of these levels.
  2. Colette Rossant, who has won a James Beard Award for her food writing, has been hailed as the literary heir to M. F. K. Fisher. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Who are the food writers Rossant most reminds you of?
  3. Thinking back to her life in Cairo, and her despair after her father died and her mother deserted her, Colette writes: “I was devastated and heartbroken. Ahmet and his kitchen became my only solace as he enveloped me with love and food.” Later, when her mother moves her back to Paris, the kitchen once again is the room to which she retreats. Discuss the emotional role that the kitchen has played in Colette’s life. Why do you think many people regard the kitchen as a sanctuary? What memories of your own are tied to the kitchen?
  4. Even though her mother repeatedly lies to, betrays, and abandons her, and she describes life in her grandmother’s enormous apartment as “often grim, loveless, and cold” Colette never seems dispirited or depressed. How does the author manage to keep the tone of her memoir upbeat?
  5. Throughout the memoir Colette recalls the comfort that she has found in various foods. As you were reading the book, were you surprised that the first recipe she included was for Cucumber Salad, a dish that is not one most Americans traditionally think of as a “comfort food”? Do you believe that certain foods actually bring comfort more than others? How much of the comfort they provide is because of the memories we attach to them?
  6. Colette’s life definitely takes a turn upward when her mother marries. At the restaurant where she meets her new stepfather, Colette is introduced to her first truffle, “an epiphany of the senses, a thrill caressing my adolescent tongue….” Next she discovers quenelles: “As I took a bite, I had a second revelation. The airy quenelle dissolved into nothing, leaving my mouth with a creamy, buttery sensation hinting of the sea….” Talk about Colette Rossant’s ability to convey the intoxicating pleasure she derives from food.
  7. 7. What does Mira mean when he tells Colette “food is memory”? If you were to close your eyes and try to identify all the ingredients of a new dish that you taste for the first time, as Mira encourages Colette to do, how successful do you think you would be? Do you think it matters? One cannot cook a dish without knowing the ingredients, but is such recognition necessary in order to savor food? Do you think the ability to appreciate exquisite taste sensations is a special gift or a learned response? Discuss whether or not certain dishes actually are superior to others—or if it is simply a matter of which you prefer.
  8. One of the most amusing scenes in the memoir is when Georges and Gérard declare that they are both in love with sixteen-year-old Colette and suggest that she choose between them by kissing them each in turn. How does the kissing contest remind you of a food tasting? What do you think of this method of selecting a boyfriend?
  9. When Colette scandalizes her French family by announcing her intention to marry an American, only her stepfather, Mira, accepts Jimmy without reservation. But when Colette becomes pregnant, her mother is transformed. The cold, withholding woman who never had time for her daughter, who repeatedly abandoned her, suddenly can’t wait to become a doting grandmother. Why do you think her mother is ready to be loving and nurturing toward her grandchild? Why do you think Colette is able to accept this without resentment? Do you think you could?
  10. “How foody does a memoir about eating have to be?” one reviewer asks, and answers her own question by stating: “If it were up to me, each paragraph would minutely describe ambrosial meals, perhaps alternated with passages about picking tomatoes in the sun.” If it were up to you, where would you draw the line? Is it possible for an author to obsess about food too much? At what point does eating to escape one’s loneliness and unhappiness border on an eating disorder? “Colette Rossant can make a ham sandwich sound like a delicacy, and describe a raspberry tart with the same passion that others talk about their love affairs,” another reviewer comments. Do you think it is appropriate to talk about food with the same passion that people talk about their love affairs? Why or why not?
  11. How do you enjoy the “food memoir” as a genre? What do you think of the recipes the author weaves into her memoir? Have you tried them? Are you tempted to? Are they smoothly incorporated into the narrative? If you had to choose two or three favorite recipes from this book, which would they be? Why?
  12. “Her memories are vividly rendered, infused with piquant tastes and smells, like that of roasting pigeons mixed with cumin and limes. Nostalgia for the Egypt of Rossant’s childhood pervades this charming book,” wrote the New York Times of the author’s previous food memoir, Apricots on the Nile. If you have read both books, how would you compare them? If you did not read the earlier memoir, are you now likely to? Why or why not?