Mentorship In The Hundred Foot Journey

Richard C. Morais comments on the effect of mentors in his novel The Hundred Foot Journey. The mentorship of Madame Mallory, Paul Verdun, and his father, Abbas, push Hassan on his journey and enable him to be the first immigrant chef to receive three Michilen stars. By definition, a mentor is “a wise and trusted counselor or teacher; an influential senior sponsor or supporter” (Dictionary.com). In some way or another, Abbas, Madame Mallory, and Paul Verdun all meet this definition. Morais primarily uses Hassan’s mentors to show the effect that mentors have on their mentees.

Morais displays the mentorship of a parent and its effects through the relationship of Hassan and his father, Abbas. Abbas pushes Hassan to start cooking and enables

him to do so. When setting up Maison Mumbai, Hassan , “at the age of eighteen, finally took up [his] calling. It was Papa’s idea, ordering [him] into the kitchen” (Morais 81). Abbas empowers Hassan to continue his career in a new way by allowing him to “get [his inheritance] now. . . . [because he] would much rather see [Hassan] launched and happy and making [Abbas] proud” (165). In addition, Abbas implies that he wants Hassan and his other children to improve upon their lot and be more successful than their family was in the past. Hassan’s grandfather grew up in poverty and “was one of those who had made it. . . . [but his] father refocused the business on the higher-margin restaurants” and increases its profits (25). Abbas supports Hassan in his decision to pursue a career in cooking and gives him the financial security to do so; therefore, Abbas mentors Hassan and plays an instrumental role in the founding of Le Chien Mechant and its eventual receipt of its third star.
Morais does not fully reveal his theme of mentorship until he introduces Madame Mallory and details the inspiration that she gives to Hassan.

She plays a crucial role in his later success. Madame Mallory instills in Hassan a wish to learn French cuisine, as seen in Hassan’s statement that he “found [himself] secretly and passionately wanting to be a part of this pig-butchering underworld” (84). When given the opportunity to learn from her, Hassan says that he “wants nothing more in this world” (132). Morais directly relates her teaching to Abbas’ wish for Hassan to be more successful than he and his father in Madame Mallory’s declaration that “this is a chance for [Hassan] to become a truly great French chef, a man of taste, a proper artist, not just some curry cook working in an Indian bistro” (126). She implies that she wants more for Hassan and for the first time vocalizes her confidence that “Lumiere and Le Saule Pleureur, they can’t hold him. . . He has much farther to travel. He will not be with us long” (155). Madame Mallory also states that she “has taught [Hassan] what [she] can,” and thus fulfills the teaching role of a mentor (155). Even after leaving Le Saule Pleureur, Hassan “always wonders whether she did not help [him]-- a discreet call here and there—to help things along at key moments” and to support him (163). Through Madame Mallory, he meets Le Comte de Nancy Seliere, and when he became Hassan’s generous landlord, he “knew in that instant the arrival of Le Comte de Nancy Seliere and his property, it was somehow the work of Madame Mallory’s invisible hand” (171). Although he “had no proof, indeed never got it,” Hassan never doubts Madame Mallory’s crucial role in his success (171). In providing these introductions, Madame Mallory mentors Hassan not only as teacher but also as a

supporter.
Hassan’s other culinary mentor is Paul Verdun; due to the mentorship that Paul and Madame Mallory provide, Hassan is able to get his third star. Hassan sees a framed pamphlet in Paul’s house that “was signed, simply, ‘Gertrude Mallory,’” thus showing the connection between Paul and Mallory. In conjunction with Hassan’s earlier statements that Madame Mallory helps his career , Morais suggests that Paul introduces himself to Hassan because Madame Mallory tells him to do so (178). Therefore, Madame Mallory provides Hassan with the opportunity to impress Paul, who mentors and helps Hassan during his lifetime. However, Paul most profoundly helps Hassan in his death. At Paul’s memorial, Hassan realizes this:
The memorial dinner was not for Paul, you see, but for me. With this meal my friend had signaled to France’ culinary elite that a new gardien of classic French cuisine had burst onto the scene. I was his anointed heir. . . . After that night, however, I was propelled to the top ranks, my good friend ensuring—even from beyond the grave—that the country’s gastromic elite made room for a forty-two-year-old foreign-born chef he had personally chosen to protect the classic principles of France’s cuisine de campagne, which he and Madame Mallory had fought so hard to protect (213-214).
By leaving instruction for him to cook the meal at his memorial, Paul encourages Hassan to continue his legacy and the legacy of Madame Mallory. In pushing him to do so, Paul impels Hassan to become more successful than he and Madame Mallory ever become. Through Paul’s memorial dinner, “everyone who was anyone in French haute cuisine” eats a meal that Hassan cooks and learns his name (205). Anna Verdun speculates that Paul commits suicide because he was about to lose his third Michelin Star, and Madame Mallory never gets her third star, but Hassan gets his at the end of the novel (192). Morais includes this plot point after Paul’s memorial in order to emphasize that Paul helps Hassan to this achievement. Due to the mentorship of Paul Verdun and Madame Mallory, Hassan is able to join the culinary elite of France and becomes more successful in this world than Madame Mallory ever was and has the potential to surpass Paul’s success as well.
Morais portrays the mentorship of Abbas, Madame Mallory, and Paul as crucial in Hassan’s success. Abbas gives Hassan the culinary foundation from which he builds his career; Madame Mallory expands on that base, then supports Hassan in his career. Paul serves as in influential sponsor. Morais equates their mentorship with mentorship in general. By displaying the results of this mentorship, he shows the effect of mentors on people. He also expresses his opinion that mentors play a crucial role in the success of their pupils.