Chef Noel and Matisse

Two highlights of my 74th birthday today

Chef Noel observes as I prepare a chicken for lunch today at his home in Vence

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

Bon Appétit

It was really hot today on the patio of the home of Chef Noel in Vence—close to 90 degrees with no breeze.

No matter. Darlene, Deb, Marie, Pam and I had a great time preparing a gourmet lunch under Noel’s direction. I wish I could name all the items on the menu.

What I will not soon forget is how much work goes into French cooking.

My task was to slice chicken into flat pieces that I rolled up into sausage shapes, held in place with two layers of plastic wrap. Once Noel had placed them in a pan of boiling water, I watched them for 12 minutes till they were ready for finishing in a skillet.

His skill with a filet knife was wonderful to watch. The pieces of chicken seemed to arrange themselves with only the slightest touch of his knife.

When it came my turn to replicate his motions, the knife turned into a dull hatchet. I feared I was ruining the main course. But Noel returned often enough to keep me from committing culinary mayhem.

He played the role of a conductor, summoning each of us to different aspects of the meal preparation. And when it all came together, it was stunning. I ate the meal slowly, hoping it would never end.

In the Morning Journal earlier today, I wondered if there might be a new way of making art looming in my 75th year. I was intrigued to learn that Matisse began work at the age of 77 on what he considered to be his masterpiece, a chapel just down the road from where we were headed to cooking class chez Noel.

I’ve always enjoyed cooking, especially macaroni and cheese for my grandsons. But I never saw myself as a candidate for more challenging meals. After today, I might just give it a try when we return to Maine.

After lunch and a cool-down stop back here at the villa, we headed back to Vence to visit the Matisse Chapel. Amazingly, we found a parking space directly in front of the building.

I sat for about 15 minutes in the back row, partly meditating and partly opening my eyes to take in the blue, green, and yellow stained glass windows and the bold black designs on white tile. I would have been glad to sit there till closing time, but the rest of our group was ready to head home.

On the right wall as I faced the altar, Matisse presented an image of Mary and Jesus, with the word AVE in the upper left corner. That’s Latin for “Hail” or “Greetings.” It is the first word in the traditional Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary.

The artist could conceivably have been working on that wall on August 30, 1950, according to the background information I found online. That was the day a young mother from Sudbury, Massachusetts, gave birth to her first child in Rochester, New York, where her husband was a junior executive at Kodak.

Seventy-four years later that fellow ended up in the Matisse chapel, wondering what grace might lie ahead.