French-Moroccan chef donates treats to health care staff
If there’s one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has shown us, it is that in the midst of these dark days, you can still find a heartwarming sense of community, expressed through little acts of kindness.
In Paris, French-Moroccan pastry chef Sara Boukhaled, 27, has distributed more than 1,000 delicately handcrafted Middle Eastern treats to pressured health care workers.
Thanks to efforts made by a small, all-women team at her contemporary Moroccan tearoom and pastry shop Maison Gazelle, Boukhaled was able to treat doctors and nurses to her signature creation, known as gazelle horns.
“If we say that the macaron is the specialty of France, then the gazelle horn is the specialty of Morocco,” Boukhaled told Arab News. “To me, the gazelle horn is the least sugary pastry of all Moroccan pastries — more elegant and it also has something more feminine. That’s why I picked it.” These crescent-like cookies are traditionally filled with almond paste, perfumed with orange blossom water. At Maison Gazelle, situated in the 11th arrondissement, the experimental Boukhaled has modernized the delicacy by adding candied lemon, hazelnuts and pistachios, among other flavorful ingredients in different collections.
After being encouraged by fellow chefs in the industry to reach out to hospitals, Boukhaled personally passed on numerous boxes of freshly made gazelle horns to three hospitals — two inside Paris, and one outside the city — in addition to one residential care home for the elderly, known as Ehpad. On meeting the health care professionals, she recalled: “When I saw their faces, they were so happy. They were telling me, ‘You cannot imagine how a little gesture brings us a lot of joy and courage to continue and keep going’.” Although the coronavirus has slowed down business for Maison Gazelle, it continues to operate online, where clients can explore and order products and Boukhaled also plans to deliver more batches of gazelle horns to medical facilities.