Matafans

Jean Nicolas has called the world of the common folks of the Savoie in former centuries ce monde de crève la faim (“this world of forever famished people”). As we have seen, difficulties in finding food were many, and the one type of dish more evocative than any other of that dire state of necessity is the matafan, or matefaim, the rustic semi-pancake, semi-crêpe prepared to mater la faim, or kill hunger.

Descended directly from the Stone Age gruel spread thin on hot stones to obtain thin flat breads, matafans as we know them now have captured the fancy of small restaurants and bistros, which serve them to the tourist trade with a salad. It was serious food for the people working in the fields, since it often came in the lunch baskets brought by children or grandmothers. I remember stopping for lunch during a climb and finding in my backpack matafans, nice, cold and hard, left over from the previous dinner, together with large precut portions of reblochon and tomme and a big bagful of Lombardes, the purple plums of the area. I felt heartened at the sight of farm people lunching on the very same fare while haying a nearby field. I am pretty sure that a bit of investigation in areas where one still cuts and stores the hay would probably show a lot of matafans still on the lunch menu, brought up nowadays in a rickety four-wheel-drive Jeep.