Marie-Josée Mongelard: a legacy of taste
"In everything, take time as your ally. It makes you happy," says Marie-Josée. "Why rush like that? I don’t know." Preparing (and enjoying!) delicious meals takes time: "When you cook in a rush, obviously, it can’t have the same taste. You don’t even have time to eat." This time we lack inevitably changes the way we eat and alters our sense of taste.
In the house in Rose-Hill, where she and her 6 siblings grew up, there was always good food to eat. Marie-Josée cooks by smell. It's what helps her gauge the level of cooking: "You can't have something good and flavorful if you don't cook it on low heat, if you don't give the food time to simmer."
With sparkling eyes, she remembers the potatoes and cassava with chutneys she would enjoy for a snack. "We ate a lot of eggs when I was young, in rougail or curry. We also went fishing at Pointe aux Sables or Baie du Tombeau. Back then, those were the two most accessible seaside areas because there were no roads to go to Grand-Baie or elsewhere," she explains.
She describes the fish broth, coconut chutney, pickled vegetables, and nasturtium seed béchamel as a great chef would list a gourmet menu. "And when we poured the rice, we’d use the water to make a stew of leafy greens. I’m not even talking about the taste… It was a delight!"
While weekday meals were simple, Sundays were festive! "Poultry was really a special dish. It was chicken from the backyard, fed with grains and leafy greens. Delicious! The duck stew also had something exceptional. We’ve forgotten the flavors. And I must say, one chicken would feed a family of 10. We ate little, but we ate well." Back then, she tells us, each family would toast its own spices, gather its caripoulé leaves, to prepare the masala. Everyone had their own recipe, their own particular fragrance...
It’s from her mother that she inherited this passion for cooking. Since she was little, she would watch her mother in the kitchen, and as the eldest, she started cooking early to help out. Resourcefulness in the kitchen was the hallmark of that time. For instance, to gratinate a chayote or macaroni gratin, you would place a plate or a lid on top of the dish and put hot coals on it.
And since there were no refrigerators, meat, bacon, and fish were salted and preserved in a pantry made of muslin, with its feet placed in tin cans filled with kerosene to keep ants and other insects away. A time when, with 25 cents, you could have a candied apple, cabbage, shrimp, and some Chinese guavas on the way back…
At 72, Marie-Josée continues to share her passion with her family. She still prepares delicious dishes at L'Escale Créole, alongside her daughter, Marie-Christine. It’s a passing down of know-how from mother to daughter.