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12:58 Dec 8, 2011
This question was closed without grading. Reason: No acceptable answer
French to English translations [PRO] Cooking / Culinary
French term or phrase:ma madeleine de Proust
La fougasse est un peu ma madeleine de Proust, et me rappelle ma jeunesse dans le Sud.
How to go about this ? Maybe I should just leave it out, the reference would mean nothing to most people unless they've read 'A la recherche du temps perdu' ..interesting question I think....
My thoughts...
The "fougasse" is not to be translated. If this precedes the recipe, then leave a little mystery to those who are curious to actually discover what it is.
As for "les madeleines de Proust", you can neither assume everyone knows, nor can you patronise those who don't. This is an occasion when you might have to down-translate and simply say this is a childhood favorite.
Okay, so it's a trade-off, missing something. Being misunderstood or not understood altogether is perhaps a worse fate.
I think 'flat bread' would be a very misleading translation for 'fougasse' — 'flat bread' is usually used to refer to any kind of unleavened bread, whereas this is very definitely leavened.
As Cynthia also says, the Italian 'foccacia' is better known in the UK too; I don't think I'd call it "(a type of foccacia)", but perhaps something along the lines of "Fougasse, the French version of the perhaps better-known Italian foccacia..."
Depending of course on the intended audience, I think fougasse should be kept and explained in a small phrase: flat bread is wrong, as there are millions of kinds of flat breads (turkish, armenian, egyptian, basically its any bread without leavening). This is known in the US in its Italian version, foccacia. So i'd say "Fougasse, (a type of foccacia), is like Proust's madeleine for me, taking me back to my childhood in the south of France."
"fougasse has the same effect on me as the madeleine eaten in Proust's famous novel: it brings childhood memories..." is's practical, as it should be in recipes, and preserves the reference; nevertheless the title should be kept not to underestimate the readers (fougasse has the same effect on me as the madeleine eaten in Proust's famous 'Remembrance of Things Past': it brings childhood memories..), at the same time, a reader who has no idea about Proust has a path and a reader who knows the author does not feel underestimated; keep in mind that culinary books, which include cultural references are usually bought by people who are interested in such thgs; i would be also for "Flat bread is for me a little like Proust's madeleine, reminding me of my childhood in the south."
If a person is reading a recipe for fougasse I think there is a good chance that they will know about Proust's madeleines or, if they don't, will be only too happy to find out.
I really don't think you should take if for granted that the recipe's reader has heard of Proust, but you could explain it slightly without being too clumsy, something like "fougasse has the same effect on me as the madeleine eaten in Proust's famous novel: it brings childhood memories..." (e.g. Jeux de mot's suggestion for 2nd half of sentence).
but it brings some colours to the recipe, and tells the readers sth about the author - for him/her it's sth more than an ordinary recipe, and the food appeals to all their senses, not just the sense of taste, it's definitely to keep unless there is some other context going on
You don't have to have read Proust to have heard about the evocative powers of his madeleines. I think the concept is very widely known among English speakers. I would keep the reference.
Even though the literal Proust reference may fall on stony ground, I really think it is important enough that you should try and convey the idea at least by paraphrasing.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4
