La god of memory and a place of contemplation, a grave is the immutable trace of a person’s existence. It is to decorate and maintain. A photograph in a frame, an evocative epitaph, an intimate object… There is no shortage of ideas for highlighting the personality of the deceased or simply showing their affection. Some relatives show surprising originality, especially on the other side of the Atlantic. In its pages, Thursday, June 30, The New York Times dwells on the proliferation of unusual inscriptions. The new “fashion” at the cemetery? Honor the deceased by having their culinary specialty engraved on their tombstone.
During their lifetime, these cordon-bleu chefs were renowned for their cooking secrets, a heritage now shared in the eyes of the world. Thus, in Castor (Louisiana), Charlie McBride registered the cobbler for fishing [dessert similaire à un crumble, NDLR] of his mother in eternity, upon her death in 2005. In the cemetery of Logan City (Utah), the Andrews family funeral monument has been attracting attention for two decades with its recipe for chocolate fudge, a typical American pastry. Faced with such excitement, their alley was renamed in 2019, “Fudge section”.
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A book takes up the subject
In Pennsylvania, in Chester Springs, the Dawson children have chosen to highlight their madeleine de Proust, the Viennese shortbreads of their parent. Fascinated and inspired by this tombstone, Allison Meier embarked on writing a book on these surprising tributes: Cooking with the Dead (cooking with the dead). Like the author, a 30-something named Rosie Grant is surfing on this relatively new phenomenon with her successful TikTok account, Ghostlyarchive. The recipes of the past definitely have a future.
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