Hello again, friends! This week, we’re going to take a look at another story by one of my favorite authors, N. K. Jemisin. That story is “Cusine des Mémoires,” which is about a very strange restuarant.

So, with that out of the way, let’s get started.

We start off with our main character, Harold, who is at a New Orleans restaurant with his friend Yvette, to celebrate his birthday. He looks at the menu and scoffs at it, since the menu claims that it can replicate any meal famous or no. He particularly finds the fact that they offer the last meal of Marie Antoinette rather distasteful.

Yvette rolls her eyes at him and tells him to check out the custom meals; Harold dismisses this as a joke. Yvette tells him to keep an open mind. The two bicker a bit more, until the hostess comes and gives them something important: a non-disclosure agreement.

Harold thinks this is unusual, but the hostess assures him that he’s allowed to tell people about the place, as long as he does it in a certain way. She adds that Yvette bringing him here is basically the correct way. Eventually, after some urging from Yvette (who reminds him that this is his birthday present), he signs the NDA.

Harold needles the waitress some more, though, and asks if they can really replicate any meal that he asks for. She assures him that they can; they just need to know the date, location and approximate time the meal was served. She then adds that he should really try it himself before taking her leave.

Yvette suggests that he give them a challenge if he’s still skeptical, and that he should order a meal that his ex-wife Angelina made for her chef’s certification exam. Their conversation is interrupted by their waiter, who has come to take their order. Deciding to take Yvette’s advice, he orders the meal listed above.

After a while the waiter comes back by their food, and Harold is very surprised to find the meal Angelina made, down to the smallest detail. He’s so shocked, in fact, that he momentarily doubts his sanity, before asking Yvette what she ordered the first time she came. She doesn’t tell him, but does say that she was crying by the time they brought out dessert.

They finish their meal, and Harold asks to see the kitchen. The hostess gently tells him that’s not allowed, and gives him the same answer when he asks to see the chef. Yvette tells him to drop it. Spoiler alert: he does not do this. Anyway, he tells the hostess that he’d like to come back, and she tells him that they don’t have another reservation for almost a year. He’s surprised by this, but ends up taking the reservation anyway.

Then he decides that he just needs to know how they’re able to do this, and decides to sneak off to the kitchen under the pretense that he needs to use the restroom. As he approaches he hears voices, but finds something very odd when he actually reaches his destination.

The kitchen is completely empty.

Oh, but it gets weirder. See, when he takes a step inside, he suddenly finds himself in an 18th century French kitchen. Then he takes another step, and sees Angelina cooking for her exam. This awakens some unpleasant memories.

See, Harold believes that the divorce was his fault, since the inciting incident was an argument about Angelina’s work. She got a job offer that would keep her away from home longer than he wanted, and told her that she’d have to choose between him and her job. Naturally, she chose her job.

He tries to move towards her, apologizing, but she disappears before he gets to her. Then it turns out that he’s been found by the hostess, who is empathetic to his plight. She tells him that she wouldn’t have been able to hear him, then starts leading him back.

While on the way, she reminds him about the NDA, and he asks if she’s threatening him. She says that she’s not, but points out that signing it was for his own protection as well, since people would likely think he’s nuts if he tells anyone what he’s seen. They back back to the table and Yvette, who is a combination of relieved and angry. She asks for the check before calling Harold a fool and warning him against getting lost in memories, since Angelina isn’t dead and he can basically call her anytime he wants.

The hostess gives them the check, which Yvette pays. Harold starts to tell her about what he saw, but Yvette stops him saying she doesn’t want to know.

Some time later, Harold thinks some more about what Yvette and the hostess said to him, and decides to cancel his reservation. The story ends with him calling his ex-wife, presumably to reconcile.

This story is clearly about nostalgia, specifically nostalgia around food. I mean, the story’s title basically means “memory food” in French, so that’s fairly obvious. I think that we all have that one dish that makes us think of simpler times. For me, that’s a dish called “soup rice,” which was basically instant rice cooked in cream of chicken soup. We ate that all the time when I was a kid.

It also basically states that while nostalgia in moderation isn’t a good thing, it’s not a good idea to live in the past. We need to move on eventually, which is what Harold does at the end of the story.

And with that, I think I will go get something to eat, as this work has made me hungty.