{"id":28426,"date":"2026-10-12T18:58:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T16:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/non-categorise\/bread-butter-and-memories\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T18:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T16:58:35","slug":"bread-butter-and-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/chronicle\/bread-butter-and-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Bread, Butter, and Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know that everything has its roots in childhood. And during a tasting, a conversation took me so far back that I felt compelled to write. To share what had crossed my mind, without pretending to decipher every memory. It all came down to a simple slice of warm bread with a pat of butter. <\/p>\n

\"Anna
Sourdough bread and a little butter \u00a9Anna Wojtalik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Joys of Childhood<\/h2>\n

I like my bread sliced thick enough to have a good chew to it\u2014soft on the inside, crispy on the outside. I like it while it\u2019s still warm, when its aroma fills the kitchen even before I sit down. I already know the crunch and resistance of the crust against my teeth, followed by the softness of the crumb. Even the knife has a role to play. I take a pat of butter and place it on the bread. But I never spread it all the way across the slice. That would be as if the moment had already passed. As if I\u2019d prepared for its end before savoring its beginning. I put just enough for the first bite. <\/p>\n

The butter begins to melt and soak into the bread. The surface is still cool. I take a bite. A crescent-shaped mark from the first bite appears on the edge of the slice, like a crescent moon. And something comes back to me. A sense of comfort, certainly. Childhood, happiness. Perhaps also an old anxiety, something less sweet than the taste itself. What am I rediscovering? A memory? A sensation? A repressed emotion? Is the buttered slice of bread my Proustian madeleine? I don\u2019t have a clear answer. For once, this vagueness suits me just fine. <\/p>\n

\"Olimpia
A gourmet scene and a piece of bread \u00a9Olimpia Davies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Playing hooky<\/h2>\n

One thing is certain: this moment is mine. It belongs to no one else. I don\u2019t need anyone to understand why this slice of toast means so much to me. Do I appreciate it for what it\u2019s worth? The question almost makes me smile. I\u2019m still on the first bite, and here I am already wondering about how I find happiness. So I pick up the knife again. Another pat of butter, a little further along on the bread that\u2019s grown lukewarm. The butter melts more slowly, and the sensation changes. I sense more freshness and texture. The bread still crunches. I continue this little ritual with a level of attention I hadn\u2019t planned on giving it. <\/p>\n

Then comes the last bite\u2014perhaps the most intense one. Precisely because it signals the end, and the craving is no longer the same. I\u2019d like to prolong this moment, but I know that another slice of toast wouldn\u2019t quite prolong it: it would simply start a new one. It\u2019s strange that I felt the urge to write about this. Bread, butter, a knife, and a few bites. Yet the emotions are there. A Sunday breakfast. A snack eaten on the sly. That feeling of playing hooky, of allowing yourself a few minutes that fall outside the day\u2019s schedule. <\/p>\n

Proust’s Madeleine<\/h2>\n

This, perhaps, is my Proustian madeleine. I can\u2019t pinpoint a single memory, a specific date, or a particular place associated with it. But I recognize the emotions it stirs in me. And that morning, in my kitchen, it was a moment of great happiness. To all of you who\u2019ve read along with me right up to the very last bite, thank you for taking a day off from school with me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tasting, a conversation, and then the memory of a warm, buttered slice of bread, bite after bite. What do we find in these flavors that have been with us since childhood? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Bread, Butter, and Memories | Restaurant | Edouard Amoiel","description":"A tasting, a conversation, and then the memory of a warm, buttered slice of bread, bite after bite. What do we find in these flavors that have been with us sinc"},"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_restaurants-par-lieux":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_style-de-restaurant":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[356],"tags":[],"restaurants-par-lieux":[],"style-de-restaurant":[],"class_list":["post-28426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chronicle"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28426"},{"taxonomy":"restaurants-par-lieux","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/restaurants-par-lieux?post=28426"},{"taxonomy":"style-de-restaurant","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amoiel.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/style-de-restaurant?post=28426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}