Degrees of Separation

Much has been made of “degrees of separation” – that moment when you realise that the stranger you are talking to at a function is actually your aunt’s second cousin on your mother’s side. This sets you on a road of familial discovery which, if you are lucky, is a blessing, and if you’re not, may just be plain embarrassing.
Here is my “degrees of separation” story. I find I may have made an immense discovery in the last few weeks, which isn’t covered in the history books of Iron Age and Roman Britain. It concerns the Macaroon (or Macaron, as the French would have it).
During the Iron Age, many areas of Britain were settled by Celtic tribes, one of them in the region I hail from. This particular tribe were from the area of France on the Seine where Notre Dame Cathedral is now standing. This tribe reputedly founded the town I was born in.
Fast forward to my Grandma Alice. As a child I was a great fan of my Grandma’s baking. One thing she was a bit of a whizz at was macaroons. Not the fluffy almond sandwich type you find in every arrondissement bakery in Paris, but the type which was a like a mini tart, pastry on the bottom, filled with jam and then topped with the “gooey on the inside, crunchy on the outside” almond topping – the Macaroon.
Macaron in France are the Piece de Resistance of every high end Bakery. They come in hand made boxes with organza ribbons and you take out a second mortgage to buy them. They are quintessentially, elegantly French. Or are they?
Here’s my theory. The Parisi tribe of E. Yorkshire, who founded the settlement which was to become Eboracum (York) under the Roman legions, invented the Macaroon. When the Romans left, the recipe left with them, but the Army cooks couldn’t be bothered with the pastry part, but kept baking the almond topping. I mean, let’s face it, would a retreating army bother with packing its rolling pins? They had to march light.
Hence the fluffy lightweight, oh so elegant Macaron is actually not a French confection at all, but invented in Yorkshire by my Parisi ancestors.