{"id":956,"date":"2020-08-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-new2022.chezcora.com\/?p=956"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:27:14","slug":"le-dejeuner-magie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/le-dejeuner-magie\/","title":{"rendered":"Fruit magic!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The story of the Fruit magic stretches all the way back to December 1990. We had acquired a third 140-seat location, in an area north of the Greater Montreal area, for nearly next to nothing. From 29 seats in the first restaurant to 49 in the second, I still wonder where I found the pluck to triple the capacity in one go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cVimont is a big city,\u201d my kids said encouragingly. \u201cIt\u2019s full of people, Mom. You\u2019ll see, just wait until we open. We\u2019ll at least have enough space to put up a nice Christmas tree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the kids were right again. We had barely opened and we were astounded to see customers rushing in to the parking lot like fish in some fisherman\u2019s miraculous net. Looking back on that time, I can say without hesitation that the third opening was nothing short of phenomenal. Many times I\u2019ve told myself that our courage, our determination and our great faith in the Universe enabled all that Magic to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as promised, a big Christmas tree was installed, one at each of the restaurant\u2019s three sides. Some one hundred festively decorated cookies, made in our roomy kitchen of this cavernous Greek restaurant now outfitted for morning gastronomy, dangled by red wool from the branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Martha, our assistant manager, hurried to put up an attractive sign on which she had written in a big red Sharpie pen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT IS FORBIDDEN TO EAT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE COOKIES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BEFORE DECEMBER 31<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha managed to lay down the law while keeping an eye on all the restaurant\u2019s 140 seats. However, the day after the trees went up in the dining room, an elegant figure wearing a red tie turned up almost incognito at the restaurant\u2019s heated patio. Priding herself on personally welcoming each new customer, Martha had not even seen him enter. She almost fainted when a waitress pointed out the stately man waiting for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cDavid,\u201d she cried, \u201cis that really you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cCora, please come meet my ex-husband,\u201d she launched the sentence from across the restaurant like a missile aimed at the kitchen, where I was working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visitor stood up courteously to embrace Martha admiringly, as if she were still the Marilyn Monroe that he had married a quarter of a century ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And our high-heeled ma\u00eetre d\u2019 abandoned all professional demeanor, along with the waiters and customers arriving at the entrance and inquiring about the soup of the day. I made my way across the large restaurant, with a hairnet unceremoniously adorning my head and a food-speckled apron, which I tried to roll around my waist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cCora, this is David Weinberg, my ex-husband. He heard about the restaurant and came to congratulate me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– \u201cCould you please make him the Magic cup that your young son invented the other day?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Martha sat down in front of her former flame as if she were falling in love with love. The ex-husband agreed to cancel his nearby business lunch to dine with our swooning manager. I couldn\u2019t bring myself to tell her that I had to skim the meatball stew that needed to be served in 15 minutes for the lunch crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After giving a few instructions to the kitchen staff, I headed to the fruit counter to do Martha\u2019s bidding. A treat for someone whom I greatly valued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I filled a beautiful clear sundae cup with a mix of strawberries, blueberries, bananas, raspberries and grapes, and then drizzled it all with our delicious English cream. Then bumbling a bit, I did my best to imitate the nimbleness of my young son\u2019s fingers by neatly assembling a dome of fruit over the already full cup. My material included thin slices of apple, triangles of melon, citrus quarters, kiwi halves, a few thin slices of star fruit and a nice red strawberry. The final fruity creation resembled a lovely spring bouquet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The masterpiece was served on a clear plate accompanied by a twice-toasted bagel (as Martha insisted) and a generous helping of cream cheese. The extravagant breakfast plate caught the eye of several customers as the waitress carried it across the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha gave it a standing ovation when the spectacular cup was placed on the table. Mr. Weinberg warmly praised me, insisting that my hands must be imbued with magic. Worried about the lunch service without Martha at the helm, I said a few words to the lovebirds and dashed back to the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, Martha recounted the story of her ex-husband, the businessman, who had chosen to marry his secretary with three young kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was in absolute agreement with her husband\u2019s decision, since in their 15 years of marriage, she was unable to have children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha was not the type to cry, but a single tear swelled from her left eye when she suggested I name the new fruit cup:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRUIT MAGIC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I agreed immediately to the name, as I wanted to do something nice for Martha after hearing her poignant and tender story. And believe it or not, more than 30 years on, the \u201cFruit magic\u201d still casts its spell to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cora<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pssst: Our work, our loves, our kids, life\u2019s little joys and upsets are all like a big pot of vegetable soup simmering on the stove; it nourishes us throughout our lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of the Fruit magic stretches all the way back to December 1990. We had acquired a third 140-seat location, in an area north of the Greater Montreal area, for nearly next to nothing. From 29 seats in the first restaurant to 49 in the second, I still wonder where I found the pluck to triple the capacity in one go. – \u201cVimont is a big city,\u201d my kids said encouragingly. \u201cIt\u2019s full of people, Mom. You\u2019ll see, just wait until we open. We\u2019ll at least have enough space to put up a nice Christmas tree.\u201d And the kids were right again. We had barely opened and we were astounded to see customers rushing in to the parking lot like fish in some fisherman\u2019s miraculous net. Looking back on that time, I can say without hesitation that the third opening was nothing short of phenomenal. Many times I\u2019ve told myself that our courage, our determination and our great faith in the Universe enabled all that Magic to happen. And as promised, a big Christmas tree was installed, one at each of the restaurant\u2019s three sides. Some one hundred festively decorated cookies, made in our roomy kitchen of this cavernous Greek restaurant now outfitted for morning gastronomy, dangled by red wool from the branches. And Martha, our assistant manager, hurried to put up an attractive sign on which she had written in a big red Sharpie pen: IT IS FORBIDDEN TO EAT THE COOKIES BEFORE DECEMBER 31 Martha managed to lay down the law while keeping an eye on all the restaurant\u2019s 140 seats. However, the day after the trees went up in the dining room, an elegant figure wearing a red tie turned up almost incognito at the restaurant\u2019s heated patio. Priding herself on personally welcoming each new customer,\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"L'histoire du D\u00e9jeuner Magie remonte \u00e0 d\u00e9cembre 1990 et au troisi\u00e8me restaurant Cora, en banlieue nord de Montr\u00e9al.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lettre-mme-cora"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}