| a m e r i c a n s c e n e | WEEK-END --- dimanche 29 juin 2008 |
Paul Comarmond seeks his Creole roots
Paul Comarmond seeks his Creole roots
From thousands of miles away, Paul Comarmond can relate to the recent movement in Mauritius to win official recognition for Creoles, especially the Creole language.
Comarmond has been working for the past several years in Canada to unite Canadians of Creole descent in the common goal of better understanding their Creole heritage and sharing it with the wider world.
As a founding member of the Toronto chapter of the International Organization of Creole People, he helps organize the annual International Creole Day, which celebrates Creole music, food, art and literature, and he is a frequent lecturer in academic settings on Creole topics. At York University in Toronto, for example, he spoke on Art et Creolité", and " Les origines des Creoles." He will present a slide show on the African Diaspora at the Carassaukga (Canada) multicultural festival, and also speak on the "Pancreolism" at the Louisiana Creole Conference of Chicago in July.
Comarmond came to Canada in 1974, at age 20, and developed a career in the graphic printing business. Since leaving that industry five years ago, he has devoted his time to two other passions: watercolor painting and researching Creole heritage.
Comarmond is one of an estimated 200,000 people of Creole background living in Canada, coming mostly from European-influenced Creole societies. The largest community is from Haiti, and there is a large Portuguese Creole community from Cape Verde. The Mauritian community is relatively small by comparison, and "they don't all consider themselves Creole, even though they are all "creolophones," he said.
In search of his Creole roots, Comarmond, a self-taught artist, travelled through the islands of the Indian Ocean for three months in 2004, where he gave a watercolor workshop in Madagascar and gathered images of life on the islands. The trip resulted in a series that featured watercolors of the islands, including scenes around Mauritius. The project, called "Voyage en mer indienne," was exhibited at the Centre Francophone of Toronto in 2005. Many of his paintings were featured during Creole month held that year in Montreal.
From his research and observations, Comarmond concludes that the Creole language, culture and identity are at an important stage of evolution.
"Often shunned, banned and criticized, the language is now enjoying a well-deserved recognition, he said. "Historically it is the result of two cultures and the evolutionary process of using the vocabulary of one and the grammar and syntax of the other. With colonization and slavery and from the contact between the European masters and the slaves, a new set of language emerged, namely the Creoles of today's world."
There are as many as 127 different Creole cultures, but the main bases remain French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. Haiti and Seychelles are the only two countries that have officially recognized the language.
Mauritian Creole is one of the 15 French based Creoles and is second in the number of speakers (1.2 million), after Haiti (7 million). The origin of Mauritian Creole dates to 1720, when slaves came from Africa and Madagascar developed a communication link with their French masters.
"The regional French of the 18th century along with French coastal dialects of Brittany and Normandy still persists in enriching the Mauritian Creole vocabulary," Comarmond said. "Many words are also of English, Chinese and Indian origin. Rougail, for example, comes from the Tamil word, "urugai" which is a sauce that will last a long time. It was the rice accompaniment of the first coolies," he said.
What fascinates Comarmond are the links between different Creole cultures, as the roots are the same: in colonization and slavery.
He is interested to know how a Creole culture in Mauritius shares similarities and differences with that of other European-influenced Creole communities. Having such knowledge, he said, helps Creoles better understand their roots and identity.
"Creoles tend to stick to their colonizers' culture for comfort and advancement, whereas to research your own is so much more rewarding and authentic. I have European, Malagasy and Goan ancestry. I do not particularly care about a family history. I am more concerned about the reasons and circumstances of their migrations."
Comarmond said he's pleased that there's a renewed interest in Mauritius to preserve the Creole heritage and develop a more standardized written code for the language. There are three ways to write Creole, he said, and the Mauritian newspapers tend to use a phonetic version, based on what is heard.
"I have always admired as a child people who could master several languages," Comarmond said in an interview. "The Creole language always showed more real life imagery than academic ones we learned in school. Creole music was spontaneous and I still remember busloads of Creoles picnicking on beaches and warming up the ravanes on a fire for a sega evening. So real and authentic.
"Being Creole and speaking Creole was frowned upon until 50 years ago. Sega music wasn't common on the radio. Now there's a new acceptance," he said. "In 2004, Vinesh Hookomsing of the University of Mauritius tabled a proposal called "grafi larmoni" to Ministry to Education in an attempt to standardize the way to write the language. It is an evolutionary process that was revived by Dev Virasawmy in 1967 and which finally will be introduced in schools for teaching in the Zones d'Education Prioritaires. Still a work in progress, it is far from being the final orthography that will establish Mauritian Creole as a full fledged literary tool."
Comarmond firmly believes that Creole speakers in Mauritius should not be ashamed of speaking the language, and should encourage their children to speak it.
"They should start to learn its orthography and no longer confine it to its oral character and folkloric usage," he said, adding that the Creole language is "the only point of reference that all Mauritians share."
To view Comarmond's paintings, consult his website: www.yessy.com/pcomarmond
David Lee: Top Toronto Chef
David Lee was born in England, trained as a chef in London, California, Hong Kong, Madrid, Italy and France, and now is the chef-de-cuisine and owner of arguably the best restaurant in Toronto - and some say in Canada.
But his culinary and family roots remain staunchly Mauritian.
His father, Raymond Lee Sow Fong, is from Port Louis, his mother, Mary, from Floreal, now living in Tamarin. He proudly says that he is the third generation in a family line of chefs. While living in Mauritius for four years as a young child - and later during frequent visits from England - David spent a lot of time in his grandparents' kitchen. The smells, the tastes, the chatter among the cooks are memories that guide him today in his own culinary pursuits.
"They were always in the kitchen making something, and I was always intrigued." His paternal grandparents "would make a whole production out of making Chinese sausage and chilis, doing it on a stone," Lee recalled in a recent interview at his up-scale Toronto restaurant, Splendido.
"They would bottle the chili sauce and there were hundreds of kilos of these chilis, and I thought they were crazy," he said with a laugh. The Lee family is still into cooking, operating a pub, Jolie Femme, in Port Louis, serving chicken wings, stir fries and tapas, he said.
"My relatives are very passionate about their cooking," he said. "I remember coming from England and visiting my (maternal) grandmother, who would spoil me rotten as I was an only child. She would make me chips and fried sausages, thinking I would like this, coming from England. I was six years old and not accustomed to Mauritian food with its spices but then I got introduced to the spices, and the food cultures of Indian and Chinese cooking."
Another memory remains strong: "My grandmother's pig's trotters. She's gone now, but when I'd visit her in Mauritius as a child, I learned so much about food. She'd use lemon, ginger, garlic and tomato - it was sweet and sour and it was so good. It's been the dish that has been my benchmark ever since."
Now when he visits Mauritius, he stays out of the kitchen, not wanting to interfere or impose his own ideas on the family culinary traditions. "There's nothing more I love than having a family meal in Mauritius. It's amazing. But I never get involved in the kitchen when the aunts and uncles are there. They are so passionate and they are very good at it. It's their domain."
That's an interesting admission from a top-shelf chef like Lee, who spends long hours in the kitchen of Splendido in search of culinary perfection for his restaurant guests. Since taking over the restaurant seven years ago with partner Yannick Bigourdan, a native of the South of France, the duo has created a successful business based on impeccable service, the freshest ingredients from Canadian farmers, and an innovative culinary touch. Lee leads a talented crew in the kitchen, while Bigourdan manages the business end. They are both busy now planning the details of a second restaurant in Toronto, a bistro-style eatery that will open in June.
Lee has become a fanatic for Canadian ingredients and has made his trademark as a promoter of local farmers and their produce. He visits farms to see how the cattle are raised, and develops relationships with farmers to assure that they provide him with the best cuts of meat and the freshest vegetables. He does the same with fishermen in Canada's Maritime Provinces, as he loves to work with lobster, crab and fish. The cheeses served are from Canadian artisanal cheesemakers. A trained sommelier assures that Splendido has one of the most extensive wine lists in Toronto.
On his menu on the day of this visit: poached white asparagus, crisp duck confit, sea urchins from British Columbia, which he calls "the foie gras of the sea." And when in season, he loves to do Quebec foie gras sous-vide, butter-poached Nova Scotia lobster and Ontario pulled suckling pig.
He calls his cuisine "French influenced, but inspired by local ingredients." There are a few influences here and there from Mauritius, such as the sweet-sour taste in the tuna capriccio, with chili oil and ginger ponzu. But basically his theme is simplicity. He doesn't want to overwhelm the fresh flavors of his vegetables, meat or seafood.
And Toronto seems to love it. Restaurant surveys constantly rank Splendido as either the best, or among the top, in Toronto and in Canada. One survey placed it in the top 10 in North America.
But experiencing Lee's culinary talents comes with a big price tag. For the tasting menu, $135 (Canadian) per person. The à-la-carte options start at $45 and up. A meal for two with wine can add up to $500. But from a look at comments of patrons posted on various internet sites, and from the reviews of Toronto restaurant critics, those serious about eating well think it's worth the price.
"God is in the details, and at Splendido they include long-stemmed roses, Spiegelau glasses and peanut butter chocolate truffles presented with the bill," wrote one restaurant critic. "From the welcoming tray of hors d'oeuvres to the warm Grand Marnier crepes, there was not one misstep from chef David Lee's brigade. The service is the city's best; second place isn't even close. It is also one of the city's most expensive restaurants, but, for a special occasion, this brand of decadent pampering is worth it."
The road to becoming a successful chef started early for Lee, when he decided to pursue this career at age 16. He began his training and did an apprenticeship in the village of Hertfordshire, England, where game meats and local produce were in abundance. He moved to London to work at the Hotel Intercontinental in Hyde Park, and after a year-and-one half, went to the Relais and Chateaux Hotel Fleur du Lac in Switzerland. In 1992, celebrated chef Anton Mosimann recruited Lee to work at his London restaurant. To this day, Lee follows Mosimann's philosophy: ""Don't try to overdo things or use too many ingredients. Leave the taste of what it is. "
At age 24, wanting to branch out on his own in a new territory, Lee moved to Canada. "I was intrigued by the resources in Canada, and that the Canadian food chain was so diverse," he said. "You could get lobsters, and wild mushrooms, all from local sources. I couldn't do in England what I could do in Canada. It was truly a land of opportunity for me." And it didn't help that he had an uncle he could stay with in Toronto. He had lots of offers but settled on job a chef de cuisine at Centro, a well-known Toronto restaurant. During his six years there, Lee traveled to Napa Valley, Hong Kong, Madrid, Italy, France and New York to expand his knowledge and craft. In 2001, at the age of 29, he teamed up with Yannick Bigourdan to acquire Splendido, for the first time becoming the co-owner and chef-de-cuisine of his own establishment.
Despite his success here, Lee still has a dream involving Mauritius. "I'd like to do a hotel promotion in Mauritius and be a guest chef. It would be an honor," he said. "I'd like to highlight the best of Mauritian and Canadian products and put them together in a dining experience. There are so many exotic fruits and curries in Mauritius, and one idea is to add touches to make it more French. We could experiment and figure it out!"
Lee, who speaks French and Creole, says he has "a very close connection to Mauritius - it's my second home. There isn't a day I wake up that I don't think of Mauritius, of my parents, the ocean. I love diving. And when I work in the kitchen with guava, it brings me back to my childhood. I remember hunting bats at age six in the mangroves."
a m e r i c a n s c e n e WEEK-END --- dimanche 29 juin 2008
