Save Me the Plums

Save Me the Plums features two memorable trips to Paris in which Reichl encounters an elderly French widow whose wife was named Severine. The old man acts as a recurring motif, reinforcing the importance of authenticity over luxury. Reichl first meets the man at an expensive restaurant called Caviar Kaspia, where she is trying to decide whether to spend $6500 on a vintage Dior dress she saw earlier that day. On their first meeting, the old man shares expensive champagne and caviar with Reichl, adding to her luxurious experience of Paris. The man tells Reichl she reminds him of his late wife, who he describes as “a mysterious creature” (131). When the man reveals that his late wife’s name was Severine, the same name sewn into the vintage Dior dress she tried on earlier that day, Reichl feels that the elegance she has been looking for is inside her already. She tells the old man that spending time with him has made her “for just a moment, into the person [she] might have been” (131), underscoring The Connection between Food, Memory, and Emotion.

Eight years later, Reichl is in Paris on a very different trip, researching budget hotels and restaurants, when she encounters the old man again.