Can a taste bring you to tears? For one woman in Kentucky, the answer was a resounding yes.
On Oct. 27, Kate and Jason McClearen, who post as @thechefandwife on Instagram, shared a video of Kate tasting a pumpkin muffin at The Trustees Table, the restaurant at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. TODAY reported that the bite unlocked a fond childhood memory.
“Do You Guys Have Any Pumpkin Muffins Left?”
The scene begins with Jason asking a server that very question. The server says yes and brings enough for everyone at the table.
“OK, so my mom has the recipe and she makes these pumpkin muffins every year,” Kate says. The server asks whether she has ever had them in the restaurant.
“I haven’t had them from here, actually,” she answers.
“Your Mom Got The Recipe From Here”
Jason takes the first bite and is asked whether the muffins taste like “mom’s.” He nods and notes, “Your mom got the recipe from here.”
“My mom used to make these every fall, and then I make them now,” Kate tells the camera. “But I never had them in the place that they originated from.”
Then she takes a bite, and tears well up in her eyes right away.
“Tastes Like My Childhood,” She Says, Wiping Away Tears
“Let it out, babe,” her husband says.
“Tastes like my childhood,” Kate says, wiping her eyes. “I cry at everything and I hate it.”
“That was an instant, amazing memory rushing back just from food,” Jason concludes in the video.
Commenters Share Their Own Food Memories, And One Says She Got “Ratatouille-d”
The comments filled up fast with people who understood. “I love that food can do that!” one commented. “Had the same reaction to potato salad at a local BBQ place…literally teared up when I tried it!”
“Food holds so many memories and traditions,” wrote another. “Sparking these special moments can be an emotional experience. Dont be embarrassed.”
Another commenter noted, “She got ratatouille-d,” a reference to the pivotal scene in the Pixar movie where food and memory intertwine.
Her Mother Is Alive And Well, And Baked These Muffins At The Start Of Every Fall
Kate emphasizes that her mom is still very much alive. She says her mother made most meals from scratch and baked these muffins at the beginning of every fall, without fail.
“With her food, she was very intentional about whoever was around being welcome to the table,” Jason told TODAY, adding that he had a similarly emotional reaction when he tasted the muffins. “I think of Nana’s house and the holidays,” he says.
The Recipe Came From A Cookbook By The Woman Who Ran Dining At Shaker Village
Kate’s mother used a recipe first published in the cookbook “We Make You Kindly Welcome: Recipes from the Trustees House Daily Fare, Pleasant Hill, Kentucky” by Elizabeth C. Kremer. Kremer led dining operations at Shaker Village from 1967 until 1986.
“She has a bunch of recipes that she brought with her into the restaurant, like her tomato celery soup, fried chicken, as well as those pumpkin muffins,” said Kristen Flick, Shaker Village’s VP of hospitality. “All of those dishes are still on the menu today, and we have those in our cookbooks.”
That means the muffin Kate tasted was the same dish her mother had learned to make from a printed page decades earlier.
A Dining Room That Felt Like Her Grandmother’s House
For Kate, the “ambience” of Shaker Village is the “essence” of her grandmother. “She styled her house after Williamsburg, early American colonial and everything like that,” Kate says. “So I was sitting in a dining room that was very reminiscent of the one I grew up around.”
“It’s a dining room that I’m never gonna have a meal at again,” she says through tears, “and to taste a food that is centered around the person who introduced my mom to that, it was just … really, really good.”
Bring Your Own Food Memories To The Table
Stories like this one stick with us because almost everyone has a dish that takes them back. If you want to hold on to your own, here are a few simple ideas.
- Write the recipe down. Kate’s mother worked from a cookbook, and a handwritten card with a note on who made it is even better.
- Bake it together. Kate says she makes the muffins now herself, and cooking side by side passes the skill and the story along.
- Ask about the source. A restaurant, church cookbook or neighbor may be where a family favorite began.
- Visit the origin. Shaker Village still serves the dishes from its cookbook, so a trip to a recipe’s birthplace can bring a family story to life.
- Do not apologize for the tears. As one commenter put it, there is nothing to be embarrassed about.
A muffin in a Kentucky dining room reminded one woman of her mother’s kitchen and her grandmother’s house. This fall, maybe it is your turn to bake the thing that makes someone at your table go quiet for a second.
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