Joining my father in his chocolate factory was far from being a straightforward path, even if today it seems obvious. Of course, I spent my Wednesdays and Saturdays in this place, which at the time was a laboratory without a shop in the 15e district of Paris. In particular, I celebrated all my birthdays with my friends… And, as my father was also passionate about gastronomy and formerly a chef, he always shared this with me and took me to tons of restaurants – up to five tables per week.
The first time we went to Georges Blanc’s hotel-restaurant in Vonnas (Ain), I was 4 years old, and already had a big appetite. It seems that I have finished all my plates of the (long) tasting menu, before going up to the room under the pretext of a nap and ordering myself a platter of petits fours in room service… Cooking has always been one of my main interests, but it was only a hobby for a long time. It is not because we love champagne that we buy vines!
“I didn’t like working as a lawyer any more than that. “
I grew up hearing over and over again that you had to get an education, that manual trades were for those who couldn’t do anything else. So I did a scientific baccalaureate, then I enrolled at the Sorbonne for double-degree law studies with HEC. I passed the bar and worked for two years as a lawyer in an American business firm, then in a bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions. It was very educational, but I didn’t like the job more than that.
The click came when my father received the insignia of knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit, in February 2017. I watched him make his speech, moved. And I said to myself: my children will be lucky, they will have, like me, great birthdays. Then I realized that my father was no longer very young, that I wasn’t necessarily going to have children right away and that, by the time they arrived, the chocolate factory might no longer be there or no longer be. the same. It split me in two, I realized how much I couldn’t bear to lose her and that I had to take over from my father.
The Blues
Today we are working together. He is the “big boss”, I am the “little boss”, that’s how he describes us to the Indian intern. I have chocolate in my blood, I arrived with a large theoretical baggage and I put my hands in it. As for the pastry, more complex, I learn slowly alongside my father and the team.
When I’m not eating chocolate (because I still love it so much), I like simple and comforting dishes, like the couscous that my mother, a Sephardic Jew from Algeria, cooked every Friday. But the dish that always warms my heart when I have a stroke of the blues is the minina, a sort of “cake omelet”, which is also the specialty of my best friend, of Tunisian origin.
It’s an easy recipe, which is traditionally made in my family with peas and brains, but where you can also put leftovers, chicken, mechouia – or prepare plain, with eggs. For me, it is a dish that is synonymous with parties and shared happiness.
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