NONFICTION - March 14, 1993

DINING WITH PROUST by Jean-Bernard Naudin, Anne Borrel & Alain Sederens; translated from the French by Wendy Allatson, Simon Knight, Sue Rose, Isabel Varea, Ros Schwartz (Random House: $40; 192 pp.). Food occupies an important place in “In Search of Lost Time” (commonly mistranslated as “Remembrance of Things Past”), because it was taste that triggered Proust’s memory. Eating was also an essential part of socializing (especially in an era unaware of cholesterol and calories) and offered a way to reveal the sensual appetites of his characters. The authors have assembled a striking book of re-created menus from the various social events in Proust’s epic narrative (Gilberte’s tea-party, dinner with the Verdurins, etc.), with easy-to-follow recipes. The Pineapple and Truffle salad the Narrator’s mother serves to Swann and some of the main course dishes sound overly rich and expensive to modern tastes, but the souffles the Narrator savors at Balbec are delectably chocolate-y. Naturally, the authors include a recipe for petites madeleines : They’re a lot of bother to make , but the reader/baker can dip the results in a cup of “regular or lime-flower tea” and see what memories they stir.