8 ounces dark chocolate
cup (1¼ sticks) butter
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup sour cream
………
DOUBLEDAY, 2003
(available in paperback from Anchor Books, 2006)
JACQUES SAUNIÈRE, well-respected curator of the Louvre in Paris, lives a furtive second life. As a leader of a secret European society, the Priory of Sion, Saunière carries with him knowledge that only three others share, and all three have been murdered in the last twenty-four hours by fundamentalist adherents of Opus Dei, a devout Catholic group. When Saunière is shot in the stomach in the Louvre’s Grand Gallery by an assassin making his fourth and presumably final stop, Saunière has only minutes to devise a way to perform his last, perhaps most important, act: He must transmit his secrets to the one person he can trust, his estranged granddaughter, Sophie, a professional cryptographer.
So begins The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s masterfully intricate murder mystery. As the French police attempt to answer the questions surrounding Saunière’s murder, they find themselves racing to decipher the codes and clues simultaneously being unraveled by Saunière’s granddaughter and the prime suspect, Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of religious symbology who happens to be in Paris at the time. To reveal meaning in Saunière’s clues, the police—and the reader—must learn about the Priory of Sion, the once-close relationship between Saunière and his granddaughter, and the storied historical iconography of the divine feminine. Almost every fact is indispensable to unmasking Saunière’s secrets.
Throughout the book, the power of symbols transcends even the fast-moving plot. Pagan and religious symbols fill The Da Vinci Code, linking the reader to the past, to dogmas, to revolutionary ideas, and to deeper secrets. Symbols incorporated into art—Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings, for example—and architecture serve as effective ways for artists to communicate to one another and to generations to come.
No symbol is more important to unraveling the mystery of Saunière’s death than the rose, which is found in numerous key places. “Rather than lock each other out,” Saunière tells Sophie as a child, “we can each hang a rose—la fleur des secrets—on our door when we need privacy. This way we learn to respect and trust each other. Hanging a rose is an ancient Roman custom.”
As Langdon explains to Sophie, the rose has also symbolized the Holy Grail. “The Rose was a symbol that spoke of the Grail on many levels—secrecy, womanhood, and guidance—the feminine chalice and guiding star that led to secret truth,” Langdon explains.
Still later, another symbologist drawn into the mystery describes the rose as “the premier symbol of female sexuality,” representing “the five stations of female life—birth, menstruation, motherhood, menopause, and death.”
The plot of The Da Vinci Code moves so quickly that the characters have no time for food. But the innumerable symbols used in the book offer opportunities for creativity in the kitchen, extending the story’s symbolism to the palate.
Rosemary is one ingredient that evokes the symbols in The Da Vinci Code. Rosemary symbolically weds icons of the rose and of Mary, an incarnation of the divine feminine, both of which are integral to The Da Vinci Code.
Juli Rosenbaum prepared an Italian feast with rosemary spaghetti, lasagna, garlic bread, fruit, wine, and cream-cheese cake for the Black Madonna Book Group’s discussion of The Da Vinci Code in Waco, Texas. “Although there is no mention of rosemary in The Da Vinci Code, Mary Magdalene and the symbol of the rose are very important in the novel,” says Rosenbaum, who concocted rosemary spaghetti years ago when she planted an herb garden. “I wanted to use everything from my garden I could, and my family likes spicy, robust food. One herb led to another, and the recipe evolved over the years.”
For a vegetarian version of rosemary spaghetti, Rosenbaum suggests replacing the meat with chopped vegetables such as zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, and carrots. This sauce may be made a day ahead of time and reheated before serving—Rosenbaum says it will taste even better!
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1 pound extra-lean ground beef 1 large sweet onion, chopped 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce 1 6-ounce can tomato paste 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 teaspoon sugar ½ teaspoon salt fresh pasta) ½ teaspoon dried marjoram |
¼ teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco 3 bay leaves ½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced 5 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh oregano 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil 1 pound dried thin spaghetti (or 1½ pounds |
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté the beef and onion together until meat is crumbly and onion is softened. Add the next 14 ingredients and simmer, covered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasonings and simmer another hour, uncovered.
Cook the pasta according to package directions. Toss in a large bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil and top with sauce.
Yield: About 6 servings
Chef John Hornburg engineered a supreme Death by Chocolate for the Da Vinci Code dinner sponsored by the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Great Books Dinner and Discussion Series.
“The Death by Chocolate cake was, appropriately, a dessert to die for,” says Judy Steininger, who led the discussion of The Da Vinci Code in Milwaukee. “Never underestimate the power of a dessert.”
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8 ounces dark chocolate
4 eggs 1 cup sugar ¼ cup all-purpose flour |
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ cup sour cream |
For the frosting
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9 ounces dark chocolate, chopped |
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch-square baking pan, dust with flour, and tap out excess.
To make the cake: In the top of a double boiler or in a small saucepan set in boiling water, melt the chocolate and butter together. Set aside.
With an electric mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and vanilla. Gently fold in the melted butter and chocolate, and the sour cream.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.
To make the frosting: Heat the cream in a small saucepan. Add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.
Remove the cooled cake from the pan. Pour frosting over cake and spread to even out. Serve at room temperature.
Yield: 9 servings
NOVEL THOUGHTS
“Bring your open book, some open wine, and an open mind,” reads the invitation to the Black Madonna Book Group meeting. “The name Black Madonna expresses the freedom women experience to be strong, beautiful, and successful, and their wisdom in acknowledging the sacred aspects of everyday living,” says Juli Rosenbaum, the founder of the Waco, Texas, book group.
The name Black Madonna is derived from two books: Rebecca Wells’s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees (see p. 379). “In each of these books the Black Madonna represents the feminine face of the divine, which serves as a beautiful and natural counterpart to the more typical masculine divinity of our culture. The Black Madonna has traditionally represented women who have broken out of some form of bondage,” adds Rosenbaum.
The Da Vinci Code fit well into the Black Madonnas’ reading list. “It tied in beautifully with our theme because this is a book about the divine feminine, which, in this novel, is represented by Mary Magdalene,” says Rosenbaum.
The group used the questions on Dan Brown’s website to guide their conversation, along with quotations from Mary Starbird’s The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, a book offering indirect proof of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene, which made an excellent companion to The Da Vinci Code. “Starbird explains and documents many of the historical issues Dan Brown introduces in his thriller,” says Rosenbaum. To help visualize The Da Vinci Code’s references to art history, Rosenbaum shared books on Da Vinci’s paintings, the architectural history of the Louvre, and color photographs of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, Madonna of the Rocks, and the Mona Lisa, as well as the controversial architectural wonder at the Louvre, Pei’s Pyramid. “The photographs were extremely helpful to illustrate portions of The Da Vinci Code,” says Rosenbaum.
Chef John Hornburg brought mystery and French themes to his menu for The Da Vinci Code dinner at the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Great Books Dinner and Discussion. He presented the menu in the form of clues, which the delighted guests needed to decipher:
Appetizer: In a race, I would lose to this fast-paced book.
Salad: What French chef created me?
Entrée: “Suprême de volaille Françoise.” I am served at the Hotel Ritz, Paris.
Dessert: A terrible way to go unless you live in Pennsylvania!
So what did Chef Hornburg serve for dinner? Escargots for an appetizer, followed by salade niçoise, chicken breasts with tied asparagus spears and mini double-baked potatoes, and, for dessert, Death by Chocolate (see recipe).
cup heavy cream