Scala Radio Book Club: The Yellow Kitchen by Margaux Vialleron
Exploring the complexities of female friendship
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
On Thursday 14th July, Mark Forrest invited author Margaux Vialleron into the Scala Radio Book Club to discuss her brand-new novel, and Indie Bookshop Fiction Title of the Month, The Yellow Kitchen.
London E17, 2019. A yellow kitchen stands as a metaphor for the lifelong friendship between three women: Claude, the baker, goal-orientated Sophie and political Giulia. They have the best kind of friendship, chasing life and careers; dating, dreaming and consuming but always returning to be reunited in the yellow kitchen.
That is until a trip to Lisbon unravels unexplored desires between Claude and Sophie. Having sex is one thing, waking up the day after is the beginning of something new.
Exploring the complexities of female friendship, The Yellow Kitchen is a hymn to the last year of London as we knew it and a celebration of the culture, the food and the rhythms we live by.
Mark started out by asking Margaux about the characters. “Claude is a second-generation born French and is a lifelong friend of Sophie. Sophie is born and raised in Britain in a wealthy family. And then there is Julia. Julia is from Bologna and she moved to London quite a few years ago, before Brexit was even voted. And met Sophie and Claude there.
“You mentioned Brexit in that answer because you're very specific about the time frame of this novel” Commented Mark, “It's 2019. It begins as the clock chimes, and we begin the year we run right through the 12 months it's before COVID. It's as the post-Brexit vote wars are waging as the December election in the UK approaches. Why did you want to set the book in 2019?”
“Because 2019 was just buoyant” Answered Margaux. “2019 was Extinction Rebellion. I never forget seeing photos of the pupils doing their homework on the Waterloo Bridge. That really stayed with me. I remember having my lunch break sitting on the floor in Oxford Circus with Extinction Rebellion. I remember meeting my friend's parents during the marches as well. You know, it was a really buoyant time, but it was also a challenging time for those friendships. They always somehow had to apologize when they would introduce themselves to me. And I always found that really stayed with me, as well as if them as individuals were responsible for what was happening.”
“So you have all these tumultuous events happening during 2019 and then the contrast in the book, The Yellow Kitchen, is what goes on in that kitchen, the preparation of the food and the celebration of the wine as the three women gather together” Continued Mark. “Tell us about the yellow kitchen. Why is this so important to the book?”
“Sometimes it's a metaphor for friendship in the location of the actual yellow kitchen because it is Claude’s kitchen and Claude of the three of them is the one that really keeps the trio going. So it's a beautiful metaphor for living in London at that age. This kitchen is just not really practical in many ways. The table is wobbly, you can't even put glasses in the cupboards. But the kitchen is bigger than that.
“I love that you use celebration as a word because, for me, it's a novel about the celebratory routine we have in life.”
“You have the celebration of the food and the friendship in the UK, in the yellow kitchen. The other thing that was interesting about the book for me was the mothers, they all appear at various different points or they're talked about. How important to our understanding do you think of Sophie and Claude and Julia? Asked Mark. “Are those mothers and their relationships with them?”
“They are the heart of the novel for me. They are the shadow of the entire novel. I think the mother that really encapsulates why sometimes as much as the trio wants to understand each other, they simply cannot, and how they find really hard not to be heard by their friends.
And often the missing key is who their mother is, and who their family was. Where do they come from, what type of love they've explored while growing up, and what type of hardship they've had to face.
“So I think the mother was here just add that dimension and also maybe to make the book a bit deeper than just 2019. Before 2019, they also had experiences that are fitting for that year.”
At the heart of The Yellow Kitchen is food, wanting to know more about the reason behind this, Mark asked “Where does this love of food that you so clearly have come from?”
“It comes from moving to London. Because I'm French and I grew up with baguettes and cheese and everything. But it actually comes from moving to London and making friends at the table. Making friends in my flatshare, the kitchen was always the room we would all find ourselves at the end of the day, making friends with colleagues at lunchtime, having midnight pasta after a night out in London. That’s just always how I've managed to find my friends.
But also I moved to London in 2015 and my English was non-existent. And I think I have found my voice in the kitchen by having to talk to people at the table and then in writing by talking about such a sensual experience. When you lack all words, it's such a nice thing to be able to rely on what you tasted, what you smelled and that felt really natural for me.”
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