en is a place of remembered magic. What are spells, if not womankind's oldest recipes? What is a caldron but a pot for witches' bouillabaisse? Snow White's stepmother was AppleAnnie with a grudge, and Macbeth's Weird Sisters were the soup-chefs of Destiny. If a woman's place is at the stove, then it is there she spent millenniums perfecting her potions. She let her power simmer over a low flame; then she served up the concoction, a work of art from the hearth, to charm those who would love her and poison those who would enslave her”(Grieve 1).Tita is one such kitchen magician. Through her Chabela Wedding cake she caused sorrow and death because of the tears that she shed over the batter. Through her Quail in Rose Petals she aroused sexuality, heat, and vibrations within the bodies of all her victims, but especially in that of Gertrudis (who ran off literally burning) and Pedro who (with her eyes) “let Tita penetrate to the farthest corners of his being”(52). All this was caused by the intense satisfaction that Tita felt when receiving roses from Pedro and the fact that her blood mixed with the petals as she “clasped them so close and tightly to her hands and breasts”(48). The scary sense of the word supernatural is also existent in the novel. At various times, Tita is visited by the ghost of her mentor and spiritual mother Nacha, as well as by the evil spirit of her biological mother Mama Elena. These two entities have opposite objectives. Nacha visits Tita in her time of need- whether it be to enlighten her with a flavorful dish or to aide her with a miraculous cure composed of wild leaves and teas. Mama Elena raids Tita’s reality and like an evil witch condemns her daughter: “You have blackened the name of my entire family, from my ancestors down to this cursed baby you carry in your belly…I curse it, and you forever”(173)! Due to the fact that Mama Elena had lived a life...
