Isabelle's Spaghetti Alla Bolognese

Coming home from elementary and middle school had always been a treat for me. Not only was it a break from doing what was, retrospectively, simple mathematics and science, but every day felt like a gift with my mom cooking dinner. She knew that after long days or dreaded final exams (something I hadn’t experienced until middle school), her own Spaghetti Alla Bolognese would be the perfect thing to cheer me up and make cold autumn nights warm, or summer nights warmer. The recipe she used was passed down by one of the first patients she had taken care of in her career as a home care nurse, someone she had become so close to that they had given her family secret cooking and baking recipes. They had been so close that she still remembers her by name: Isabelle, a name that rings close to her heart and whom she holds as the person who inspired her to experiment with her career and pursue the opportunity at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Although Isabelle had long since passed, I still remember the days when she sent my mother home with freshly baked cookies and cakes—something that, although I hadn’t realized it in the moment, was a reflection of how much she cared about my mother and our family. Every day that I have a plate of my mom’s Spaghetti Alla Bolognese, even to this day, I know that Isabelle’s legacy still continues to live on and am reminded of the warmth my mother gave me all those years ago. This meal is something that I not only enjoy, but it is also a reflection of a value I hope to carry with me throughout my years: keeping memories alive in the form of food and community, passing recipes through familial generations so that the stories encapsulated by them are always guaranteed to never be lost.