Cooking up Memories: The Role of Food, Recipes, and Relationships in Jeannette Lander's Überbleibsel

This article examines the role of food in Jeannette Lander's 1995 novel Überbleibsel. It considers the multifaceted connections between food, memory, and intercultural experiences. Special emphasis is placed on the rules of Kashrut and their impact on the narrator's culinary practice. The article further explores the relationship between the narrator's two great passions, cooking and writing. It also investigates the contradictions between the narrator's gourmet aspirations and weight-loss ambitions, and the power relations inherent in the process of cooking for others. Gender, while rarely mentioned by the author herself, plays an important role in all of these topics.