Gâteaux Algériens: A Love Story by Rachel Finn Published in Gastronomica Magazine

Excerpt posted with permission from Gastronomica and writer Rachel Finn

Photo taken by Rachel Finn at La Bague de Kenza, renowned Algerian pastry shop in Paris, France

The owner has published an Algerian pastry book in French Les Douceurs de Kenza

  In search of a gift to make a loved one smile, I settled

on pastries. The recipient was more than just my lover—

he had owned my heart for seven years. And so, before

offering him this token of cakes, I needed to sample them

thoroughly…

Here was a whole realm of sweetness I had never

encountered before—pastries that couldn’t have differed

more from the fluffy pastel buttercream, tender crumb, and

dense chocolate of my usual sugar-laden dreams. I probably

shouldn’t confess this, but I’ve always had a thing for supermarket

sheet cakes. I know they lack subtlety or refinement;

still, they have long been the dessert I most crave. Now I

was confronted with these exotic delights, piled high on

pedestals, stacked into pyramids, beckoning me, almost

coquettishly, to take them into my mouth.

-Rachel Finn

(Published in Gastronomica/Caliber volume 7, number 2; spring 2007)

Rachel Finn is an American writer eagerly anticipating her move back to Paris where she will apprentice at an Algerian pastry shop. She is knowledgeable about Algerian food history, as well North/West African food ways and the diaspora. She can be contacted via this site.