Richard C. Morais’ 2010 novel The Hundred-Foot Journey chronicles the tensions and relationships between the owners and purveyors of an Indian restaurant and a classic French restaurant that reside one hundred feet from one another in the fictional city of Lumiere in France. While the surface-level story revolves around the reconciliation of two groups of restaurant owners and chefs, there are greater themes of cultural pluralism, acceptance and the unifying power of food to be found within the novel. Bridging the gap between the typically entrenched worlds of upper-class French food culture and the lower-class Southeast Asian food culture is an important priority for the novel, Morais is using these characters and situations to show the universalities that exist between what are, to the naked eye, wildly disparate cultures.
The novel is told through the perspective of Hassan, a young aspiring chef who grew up in a Bombay slum and dreams of reaching the heights of the food world in the cultural oasis that is Europe. Right from the start, Hassan’s impoverished upbringing is solidified as a major motivator for him: “We were not of the shantytown, or of the upper class of Malabar Hill, but instead lived on the exposed fault line between the two worlds” (Morais 26). Because of this fluidity between worlds, Hassan is uniquely capable of navigating the strange intermix of cultures he finds when he finally moves to Europe, falling in love with a cold egg salad sandwich in London and eventually settling with his family in Lumiere after their car breaks down.
On the other hand, the French country inn that resides a hundred feet down the street is a source of tremendous conflict at first, representative of the restrictive and oppressive French elitism Hassan and his family must combat. Hassan finds himself largely rejected in France at first, showing signs of the country’s xenophobia. This is shown when he is called a nasty name in a market, after which he notes, “for the first time I really looked around at the Parisian indifference surrounding me in the market, so typically offhand, as if nothing of true significance had actually occurred” (Morais 181). These kinds of slurs and this poor treatment of Indians and the Other is par for the course in European culture, and is exactly the kind of discrimination they must overcome.
Luckily, the novel’s ability to allow Hassan’s family and the restaurant of Mme. Mallory to reconcile and find a symbiotic relationship demonstrates Morais’ desire to demonstrate the importance of cultural pluralism. At first, Mme. Mallory’s personality is very sharp and prickly, her French snobbery serving to counteract the Hajis’ exuberance and excitement at living somewhere new. Hassan’s rising star in the food world also gives the moderately-successful Mallory pause, Morais is using this to demonstrate the fundamental fears that the upper classes have about immigrant populations – the fear of surpassing them and achieving what they could not: “the intense pain of realizing that there are those in the world who simply are greater than we are, surpassing us, in some profound way, in our accomplishments” (Morais 153).
These themes of unity and solidarity between cultures would be nothing without the universal constant of food, which is a primary motif throughout the novel. Food and the experience of cooking and eating it becomes transformative for a variety of characters in the book; Hassan’s cold sandwich, despite being seemingly unpalatable, is unlike anything he has ever tasted, which leads him to gain an interest in European cuisine. Furthermore, the restaurant he creates with Papa (Maison Mumbai) is a mix of French and Indian words – ‘maison’ is French for ‘house,’ while Mumbai is a city in India. Hassan describes in detail the joy and exuberance he feels when cooking, watching people cook, and so on. The most uplifting element to Hassan’s story is his ability to elevate his restaurant’s cuisine – normally the kind of street food peasants and the lower class eat – to the prominence of Michelin-star celebrity.
These steps parallel the novel’s quest to bring the white and Indian characters closer together in solidarity, friendship and love. Even Hassan enjoys this with the French restaurant’s overbearing chef: “over the following years, Verdun and I definitely established a deep and abiding professional respect for each other, even, I would say, one of real affection” (Morais 174). This coming together of people through food and the art of cooking, regardless of (and even because of) their differences in culture, is integral to the cultural pluralism at the heart of Morais’ novel.
In conclusion, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a compelling story which uses food to bridge cultural and societal gaps between two differing groups of people in an uplifting way. The cultural differences and treatment of class in Morais’ book allows us to see the harsh realities of the immigrant experience, as well as understand the fears that come from those who receive immigrants and the change that comes with them. Hassan’s story is the classic rags-to-riches tale, spiced up with a tremendous love for the culinary arts and committed to the idea that, no matter our cultural differences, we can still be united at the table.
Works Cited
Morais, Richard C. The Hundred-Foot Journey. Scribner Publishing, 2010. Print.
