“Persephone, a story to enjoy” by Joumana Jacob, therapy and pleasures

” In Persephone, a story to enjoyI implemented what I know how to do: telling stories, which links me to my former job as a teacher, and cooking,” says Joumana Jacob in a voice that is both soft and joyful. After painful personal ordeals, the Franco-Lebanese chef often found refuge in the kitchen. “It allowed me to stay connected to the members of my family that I had lost in Lebanon, and then I missed Beirut,” she adds soberly. After a successful experience in Bordeaux in catering, she launched into events and catering by creating Maison Joumana in Paris where she lives. The success is immediate and the culinary creativity delights its various renowned clients, particularly major brands. “I adapt to their style, their colors, their themes, their desires, their textures, while keeping the Lebanese influence,” comments the artist of taste, whose aesthetic sensitivity is expressed this time in an unusual book and transversal, which tells a mythological story by summoning all our senses.

The book is on sale at the Ofr bookstore in Paris.

Words, images and recipes to savor

“And the desire of the flower to spring from the earth will return, the season of strolling in the streets, the journey of ivy from house to house. » The celebration of spring corresponds to the return of Persephone to her mother, Demeter, who had abandoned the earth after the departure of her daughter. Before achieving this balance, the journey was bumpy. And it is from this initiatory journey that Joumana Jacob started in the original weaving of her work, where she rewrites the myth of Persephone, while associating “recipes and symbols”, a subtitle in the image of the double scope of the work. Virginie Clavreau’s prints offer visual and colorful counterpoints, whose melted contours evoke the generous culinary lines of the photographed dishes, and the smooth writing of the narrative and poetic texts. The photos, in addition to those of Joumana Jacob, are signed Alice Gras, Pauline Gouablin, Marianna Stéphanian, Tiphaine Caro and Tadzio Dlugolecki.

“I rewrote the myth of Persephone at a very dark time in my life, in 2019. I had just lost my mother and my brother, and it felt good. I often have themed meals and I have suggested the dishes associated with this story several times: my friends strongly encouraged me to make a book about it,” confides the author with emotion. “It is a culinary story, I started from the traditional version of the myth, I offer a personal interpretation, which does not present the heroine as a victim. In my version, she cannot know who she is because she only defines herself as her mother’s daughter,” she continues. Koré, as she is named at the beginning of the story, is loved by a comfortable and excessive love in an eternal spring. “When Persephone smells the forbidden flower, the narcissus, flower of introspection, she questions her identity. I understood her desire to follow Hades to the kingdom of the. dead, to see what that it happens on the other side, from an analytical point of view, it is a way of signifying a process of confronting the dark side in us and in the universe,” she explains. put into words accompanies an appetizer. In the “dress code” of the menu, Persephone is represented by labné “Milk evokes the abundance, the young childhood, the purity of Persephone before her mother, the goddess. harvest, is embodied by a bread brioche, whose rounded shape evokes breasts For Hadès, charcoal bread, to show two different faces of love,” explains Joumana Jacob.

Pages to savor. Photo taken from the book

Persephone’s escape is cooked in the form of labne shiso rolls; the journey to the land of the dead with a persimmon carpaccio with smoked salt. And it’s a black sesame flan that tells the story of Persephone’s arrival in the underworld.

“If this change is difficult at first, Persephone becomes the queen of the underworld and she is responsible for washing the dead of their suffering by becoming a purifier,” underlines the chef who “cooks” the myths. To evoke purification, a chicken and lemon broth. And it is through a culinary allegory that love is evoked, with a passionate scallop carpaccio. To the sorrow of Hades responds the poetry of Perspehone. “Let us walk a little, my friend, in your deserted streets, where the lanterns would be frozen tangerines. I know that happiness exists. Our embrace will overcome the deafness of winter. »

The narrative and symbolic power of food

“Before Persephone returns to earth for the summer, Hades makes her eat a pomegranate, to encourage her to come back home,” adds the founder of Maison Joumana. To seal Persephone’s promise of return to the underworld, a pomegranate winter tabbouleh.

The story ends with four banquets which follow the cycle of the seasons. “The end of winter banquet marks the moment when she will separate from Hades to go up to see her mother, with charcoal foccacia. She eats him to take a little of him back to earth. Pumpkin is at the heart of the fall banquet, kebbé and hummus style,” she continues with enthusiasm. The most spectacular remains the yogurt and rose water mascarpone cream cake, which celebrates the return of Persephone and spring. “It is also the time of acceptance of reality as it is. » “When writing this story, I had in mind that of Lebanon, and its current descent into hell, with the idea that we must hope for spring,” the author sadly admits.

The story of Perspéhone in 20 recipes takes shape through images, flavors and dishes designed as figures of speech that play with symbols. Certain dishes deliciously depict places, moments or emotions.

Joumana Jacob already has other culinary stories in mind. “I sometimes organize the meal of the goddesses, which brings together Tanit, Ishtar, Dido and Persephone, and I get them to talk: I am preparing a new book around this meeting. At the same time, I want to work on Adonis,” she adds.

*“Perséphone, a story to taste” is currently on sale at the Ofr bookstore, 20 rue Dupetit-Thouars, 75003 Paris.

The work, which has already received a lot of attention in the press, was selected for the Festins femmes de Madame Figaro prize.

Joumana Jacob’s pumpkin kebbe

For 8 people in a 24 cm diameter mold

INGREDIENTS

For the dough:

1,300 g pumpkin flesh

Olive oil

2 tablespoons five-spice powder (equal mixture of coriander powder, ginger, cardamom, white pepper and cinnamon)

130 g of bourghoul

130 g of flour

Chopped cilantro

2 pinches of salt.

For the stuffing:

2 onions

Olive oil

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

70 g crushed walnuts

2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses

70 g or 2 large handfuls of spinach.

PREPARATION

For the dough:

Cut the pumpkin in half and core it.

Steam it for 20 minutes or in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil. Check the cooking. It should be easy to mash with a fork, otherwise continue cooking. Peel it, collect the flesh and make a puree by crushing it with a fork. Mix this puree with the five-spice, bourghoul, flour, chopped coriander and 2 good pinches of salt. Mix well by hand so that the mixture is homogeneous. Leave to rest for 1 hour so that the bourghoul absorbs the water from the pumpkin.

For the stuffing:

Peel and chop the 2 onions. Brown them in olive oil until they become translucent, add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, salt and pepper. Crush the nuts and mix them with the pomegranate molasses.

Chop the spinach with a knife.

Pumpkin kebbe from Maison Joumana. Photo taken from the book

ASSEMBLY

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Coat the mold with butter or olive oil and spread half of the dough into it. Smooth it out and cover it with stuffing.

Using your hands, spread the other half of the dough over the stuffing and cover the entire dish. Using a knife, make a light grid so that the oil penetrates well into the dough during cooking. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame or nigella seeds. Bake at 200°C then, after 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 180°C and cook for another 20 to 30 minutes. Check the cooking with the tip of a knife, as for a cake. Remove from the oven, it’s ready!

Serve with a salad full of herbs and lemon.