Writing Lessons: What is a Culinary Travel Memoir, with Carole Bumpus

WHAT IS A CULINARY travel memoir? Can a memoir writer write such a hybrid piece, and are there any good examples of this? Before COVID, I got these questions all the time from writers who wanted to get on the road and combine their food interests with their travel pursuits. Soon, we’ll all be on the road again, I’m sure, and to get you ready, here is an example of one such recently-published book, with a short introduction by the author on how this came about. See if it sets your sites on doing the same. 

WHAT IS A CULINARY TRAVEL MEMOIR?

By Carole Bumpus

What is a culinary travel memoir? And how did I begin to write one?

My husband and I love traveling, and I also love traveling specifically to meet people in various cultures to learn about their cuisines, their traditions, and their favorite family stories. Yes, I am a retired family therapist, so these loves came together as one.

But once I began to travel with a culinary teacher, my interests kicked into overdrive. She allowed me to help her set up gourmet food tours in France and Italy, where she discovered places to visit and new traditional recipes to try, while I interviewed families. Shortly thereafter, I met a French woman in my hometown, who invited me to travel with her and her elderly mother throughout France in search of traditional culinary treasures and to meet their family and friends along the way.

What was not to like? My direction was set.

Before long, I decided to write a series of memoirs, the most recent of which is entitled Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book Two. The first of the series, Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book One, was published in 2019. The third book will leave France and take you to Italy and will come out next year.

All are part culinary, part travelogue, but all are memoirs with splashes of stories and recipes given to me from the families I was fortunate enough to meet along the way.

* * * * * *

Following is an excerpt of Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book Two – Chapter One – Nord-Pas-de-Calais]

“Tonight,” Veronique said, “I am going to introduce you to my mother’s most traditional dish. I know that is part of what you have been writing about. It is her famous Potjevlesh, and it is always served with a good, strong fermented beer. You do like beer, don’t you Carole?  Josiane?”

“Absolutely,” Josiane said. I nodded.

“As much as I enjoy wine—and I do,” Josiane said, “I really love beer best—especially these wonderful local beers you have here in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.”  She repeated what she had said in French, so that Mme. Pund, who did not speak a word of English, was included in the conversation.

Mme. Pund nodded vigorously and lifted her glass of beer in a connecting cheer. “Tchin-Tchin,” we all saluted.

“Now, to begin with, Carole, this northern France specialty, called Potche-Vletche or Potjevlesh in Flemish,” Veronique said, “means ‘meat pot.’ As you can see, my mother has prepared it as a terrine of three meats that have been roasted together with the bones. In years past, this usually was leftover meat from other meals put all together—it could be rabbit, chicken, and pork; or veal and bacon—all roasted with a lot of herbs like parsley, lovage, onions, shallots, garlic, a splash of white wine . . . What, Maman?”

“Never with beer. We cook a great many things with beer, but not this recipe,” Mme. Pund said emphatically.

“Yes, this never contains beer, but then it is cooked all together, and the bones create a kind of jelly. So, the rabbit gives its flavor to the chicken, and the pork gives its flavor to the beef—not big pieces of meat, mind you, just small pieces. And after everything has cooked you take out the bones and place everything into a mold like a pâte mold and press it down, then put it into the refrigerator. So, when we eat it, it is sliced, and the nice part is—you will see, Carole—you will find a scrumptious piece of rabbit, a piece of beef . . . Voilà!”

She picked up a slice of bread, smoothed a knob of terrine on her bread, took a bite, then bit into the pickle, the onion, and then took a sip of her beer. She continued in this order until her plate was clean.

“Ah, this is quite delectable,” I said. “Every mouthful a succulent surprise!”

Author bio: A retired family therapist, Carole Bumpus began writing about food and travel when she stumbled upon the amazing stories of women and war in France. She has traveled extensively throughout France and Italy, where she has interviewed more than seventy-five families to date for her food and travel blogs. The latest in her culinary travel series is just out. It is entitled, Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book Two. Bumpus lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she teaches classes on writing, does public speaking, and continues to write about women, food, and war. Visit her website at CaroleBumpus.com.