French Club celebrates National French Week
On Thursday Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m., French Club, or Le Cercle Français, finished their celebration of National French Week with a French Night, where they celebrated French culture with traditional food and conversation about the evolution of famous French dishes. French Night was the conclusion to a week of acknowledging French culture in numerous countries, including Canada on Monday, Nov. 7, Senegal on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and Haiti on Wednesday, Nov. 9.
The French Club served ratatouille as the main dish—an entree featuring slices of seasoned vegetables, traditionally including eggplant, zucchini, and tomato, cooked with olive oil and basil. In addition to the main meal, the club offered a charcuterie board of cheeses, grapes, and slices of baguette.
The French Club put their own Geneseo spin on this traditional dish, using potatoes as a more in-season vegetable. The ratatouille, freshly cooked by French Club president Carra Lanigan and treasurer Lila Brown, was just as warm and inviting as it is seen to be throughout France, as well as in the manner that it is represented in the famous 2007 Disney movie, Ratatouille.
As participants learned in the French Club’s presentation, the dish ratatouille was invented by 18th-century farmers in the Provence countryside by farmers trying to use up the end-of-harvest vegetables before they spoiled. The dish has since evolved to be a staple of French cuisine. French Club supplemented this history lesson with a clip from Ratatouille, adding a rather sweet element of whimsy to an already enjoyable evening.
The clip from the movie focused on Remy, a cooking prodigy who happens to be a rat, preparing ratatouille, a dish to impress the villainous food critic Anton Ego. Ego’s first bite of Remy’s ratatouille sends him into a memory of his mother making ratatouille for him as a child, emphasizing the nostalgia that the dish brings to the surface for millions of ratatouille-enjoyers, including but not limited to the residents of France.
While, of course, this small clip was not one of the major focuses of the club’s event, I felt that this was a rather endearing touch that contributed to my understanding of the significance of French food and culture. Though not everyone in the room that night had extensive French background, or even spoke the language, participants were able to indulge in a sentimental reminder of the little things that bring homesickness and appreciation of the simple beauty of life.
This representation of French culture on Geneseo’s campus, along with the more universal component of eating a homemade dinner in the presence of other individuals brought together by a shared passion or interest, really emphasized the importance of cultural events and clubs at Geneseo. Through education and thoughtful engagement with non-American culture, Geneseo students and community members are provided the opportunity to expand their perspective and understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.
If you are interested in learning more about French culture, follow @geneseofrenchclub on Instagram or email frenclub@geneseo.edu for more information!