by Jane Dornbusch

 

There's nothing like mom's recipes: scribbled on note cards or stained scraps of paper, or maybe not even
written down at all. Those beloved dishes are family histories in miniature, handed down from generation to generation.

Times being what they are, there's a new vehicle out there for preserving mother's treasured culinary heirlooms, and you can probably guess what it is. The Web site inmamaskitchen.com takes you into the kitchens of dozens of mamas, and provides visitors with the opportunity to build a page commemorating their own mothers' cooking skills (or, in some cases, lack thereof).

The site is the brainchild of New Yorker Diana Serbe, who came up with the idea while shopping in the area's ethnic markets. ``I noticed people all look the same when they're shopping for food; they have a holy glow about them. It's the basics of what food means to us, nurturing and tradition, beyond a full belly.''

Serbe was clear about her mission. ``I wanted to preserve the stories and the recipes in a rapidly moving world. They all have great value, tradition speaks within us. Why do we cook the same thing every Christmas? Why not send out for Chinese? Because tradition is there.''

Perusing the site is itself a bit like shuffling through an intriguing but disorganized box full of recipes and
memories. On the home page, you'll find options that take you to Serbe's essay on a ``rebel Mother's Day''; a reminiscence from regular contributor Junior Trimmer about his boyhood on his grandmother's farm; recipes contributed by members; an essay on Australian food; a history of tomatoes; stories on breakfasts around the globe; an article about pot pies; and much more. Dig a little deeper, and you get to what makes up the heart of the Web site: pages of stories and photos about members' mothers, edited and put up on the site by Serbe.

You do have to become a member to create a page commemorating mom's food, but it's free to do so; you just have to click to a section that allows you to e-mail Serbe and request membership. There's nothing commercial about the site. Says Serbe, ``Imagine a banner ad flashing over someone's mother's head; that would be the tackiest thing I'd ever seen. That's someone's mother; she shouldn't be a vehicle to sell sausages.''

The enterprise has a rather homey air, and it's definitely a family affair; Serbe's son designed the site, and her sister, niece and daughter are regular contributors. Unlike many Web sites, inmamaskitchen.com actually feels like a small neighborhood or village, which was one of Serbe's goals. ``People sign up and say, `I see soul on the Internet.' That's so beautiful; it's a reward beyond anything.''

Serbe was also determined that the information on the site be accurate, so she undertook the unusual step of testing every recipe that's posted. ``I have people who test for me, but it is challenging. I try to discriminate. I don't want recipes that call for a can of Campbell's soup. That's not what our tradition is. The great recipes of the world developed out of what was on hand - and generally speaking, it wasn't Campbell's.''

Serbe says that about 1,700 people a day visit the site - few, perhaps, by Internet standards, but more than she'd imagined when she started. Member Andrew Fishbein, proprietor of the Harrison House bed and breakfast in Lenox, found his way to inmamaskitchen after meeting Serbe at a party. ``It's a great resource,'' says Fishbein. ``I use it all the time. . . . Not only do I find the recipes good, I find them really unique.'' Moreover, he has a page on the site that salutes his mother, Terry Fishbein. ``She's embarrassed but flattered that her tsimmes gets to go down in posterity. It's nice because it gives people a chance to pass recieps down and gives moms a little fame.''

Creating a page for your mom would certainly be an unusual and surprising gift. Fishbein has also contributed some of his own recipes to the site; the Harrison House's popover filled with salmon scrambled eggs (recipes below) are suggested as a Mother's Day brunch. If mom is more of a make-me-dinner type than a serve-me-brunch type, this meatloaf recipe from inmamaskitchen might hit the spot on Mother's Day this Sunday.

Serbe is a fervent believer in the power of food, and food traditions, to bring people together, and she hopes that inmamaskitchen is performing that service in its own way. ``We're a country at war, and I'm saying, `Look, we're all the same.' This reminds us that we're all human beings; we're all stuck in the same skin.''

 

Wednesday, May 7, 2003