EGN NEWS DESK
In the early hours of the morning, Abdul Latif Alrashoudi was deep within the midst of a fragile operation.
With regular arms, he executed every motion with the precision of a seasoned surgeon. However, on this tranquil nook of Paris, his devices weren’t scalpels and sutures, however whisks and mixing bowls.
For this Saudi Arabian physician, the hum of the oven and the scent of rising dough held a pull far stronger than the sterile glare of the working theatre. Orthopedic surgical procedure, with its inflexible precision, was a path laid out earlier than him – but it was within the artwork of baking, his true calling, that Latif discovered his sanctuary.
Last September, after years of exhausting graft, Latif proudly opened the doorways to his personal Parisian bakery, LÂM, on the stylish Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, only a quick stroll from the energetic Place de la Republique. “I needed one thing within the North Marais the place there have been expats, vacationers, and locals, and I discover the road very cool,” he stated.
The bakery has shortly emerged as a agency favorite among the many sweet-toothed of the town, due to its flavourful Middle East-inspired pastries reminiscent of Latif’s signature halva cookies and black lemon buns. A deal with high-quality coffee additional units the bakery aside in a crowded market – in spite of everything, Latif admits, LÂM shouldn’t be merely a bakery however “a coffee store owned by a pastry chef”.
Yet the journey from Riyadh to the Republic was certainly not simple. With no scholarship in sight to attend the French capital’s Le Cordon Bleu college of pastry, Latif was compelled to solid his goals apart for years. His weekends had been spent crafting dinner events for pals, providing candy respite from the extreme medical world.
The tide turned in 2019 when Saudi Arabia’s diversification efforts ushered in a brand new period of alternatives, and a gaggle of passionate bakers had been chosen to review at Le Cordon Bleu. Latif was gratefully among the many group, simply in time for his thirtieth birthday, and shortly he was on the way in which to Paris the place his scrubs had been changed by an apron.
Not even the sudden disruption of Covid may deter Latif from pursuing his path. After a 12 months of intense research, whereas lots of his Saudi friends returned residence, Latif, the budding pâtissier, earned an internship on the famend La Tour d’Argent restaurant.
Yet his Parisian chapter was simply starting, as he stepped into his position as pastry chef on the Saint-Germain-based café Treize au Jardin. After studying the ropes there, Latif ventured right into a catering enterprise with an in depth pal and performed an intensive market evaluation, all of which culminated in his ambition to launch his personal bakery.
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Today, that dream is a actuality, a lot to the delight of dessert-lovers throughout the town. Complementing Coutume’s specialty coffee are Latif’s beautiful muffins, that includes flavours like chocolate tahini, pistachio fleur d’oranger, trois vanilles with a touch of rose, gluten-free chocolate cardamom, and his distinctive tackle a cinnamon roll – the roule au citron noir.
The menu additionally presents savoury delights reminiscent of zaatar feta buns and connoisseur quiches, all served in a light-weight and ethereal house that gives welcome respite from the busy Parisian streets. But no matter what’s on the menu, it’s clear that each appetising possibility is baked not simply with surgical precision, however with goal and fervour – all by a Saudi Arabian physician who traded in his stethoscope for a spatula, and the working room for an oven.
