Cleopatra
7th May 2003, 11:05 AM
:) I think that you will enjoy this article...
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Tuesday May 6, 2003
KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Pastry chef Yves Reynaud, with French colors on his
collar, flew in a U.S. Air Force transport to Baghdad on a vital
mission. Any search for peace goes better with cream puffs.
History is often in the details, such as the dramatic culinary operation
mounted by Reynaud's ad hoc aid group, which he might well call
Patissiers Sans Frontieres (Pastrymakers Without Borders).
Last week, 350 Iraqis and Americans met for a two-day conclave in
Baghdad on how to lead Iraq out of chaos - but the freshly liberated
capital is in such disarray that no one could find food to feed them
properly.
``They asked if we could help, and I told them we could,'' said Reynaud,
pastry chef at Kuwait's Crowne Plaza Hotel. ``I wasn't that afraid. I've
been baking in war zones for much of my life.''
Reynaud took over the whole operation, not only the Black Forest cake
and gooey meringues but also the steak au poivre and the Daoud Pasha
lamb stew.
Almost everything was prepared in Kuwait and sent in refrigerated
trucks, with an armed escort, on a 36-hour ride to Baghdad. Then Reynaud
and his 24 helpers boarded an aircraft.
Counting breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee break, the flying kitchen
crew produced 1,400 servings.
``A few elders worried there might be pork, and some people balked at
unfamiliar things, but mostly I think it was a hit,'' he said. In any
case, diners gave him rousing applause.
Tall, slim and graying at 48, Reynaud is the very picture of a French
patissier. He wears a tall white toque, small France flags on his white
tunic collars and de rigueur black clogs.
He learned his art in Provence, near Montelimar. Then, feeling
wanderlust, he took his show on the road. He worked five years until
1983 at the Caravelle in Benin on the troubled West African coast.
After a year in France, Reynaud got restless again. He finished the
1980s in Dubai and then went to the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991 to
the newly renovated Metropole, Moscow's first five-star hotel.
``We were having an aperitif on the terrace when the tanks rumbled by,''
he said. ``That livened up the day.'' Moments later, Boris Yeltsin
scrambled atop one of those tanks to declare Russia free.
Reynaud moved on to the Zagreb Intercontinental, and Croatia exploded in
warfare around him. After two years, he shifted to Indonesia, in the
hectic heart of Jakarta.
For six years, he and his Scottish wife ran a pastry shop and bakery in
Fort Williams, Scotland. But the cold drizzle and the calm were too much
to handle.
In 2000, the couple packed up their two sons, then aged 6 and 9, and
came to the Kuwait Crowne Plaza. There, despite 16-hour days and
catering parties for 1,000 people, he relaxed and took his boys to the
beach.
About his only hardship in the thriving but alcohol-free emirate was
suffering through fine dinners with nothing more than bootleg homemade
wine. Then another war landed in his lap.
``When I was asked to do this trip, I told my family only that I would
be in Iraq,'' Reynaud said. ``But my older son is at that age. When he
found out it was actually Baghdad, he said, 'Cool.'''
After French President Jacques Chirac refused to back an immediate
invasion, Reynaud caught some half-amused ragging from hawkish
colleagues. Kuwait, hardly fond of Saddam, mostly backed the war.
``I don't see why the Americans couldn't have waited a few more weeks
and gotten everyone else behind them,'' he said. But, he added, his
domain was pastry, not politics.
Still, the Baghdad banquet included one of his favorites, a pastry made
of egg yolk and sugar syrup. In French, it is called pate aux bombes.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tuesday May 6, 2003
KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Pastry chef Yves Reynaud, with French colors on his
collar, flew in a U.S. Air Force transport to Baghdad on a vital
mission. Any search for peace goes better with cream puffs.
History is often in the details, such as the dramatic culinary operation
mounted by Reynaud's ad hoc aid group, which he might well call
Patissiers Sans Frontieres (Pastrymakers Without Borders).
Last week, 350 Iraqis and Americans met for a two-day conclave in
Baghdad on how to lead Iraq out of chaos - but the freshly liberated
capital is in such disarray that no one could find food to feed them
properly.
``They asked if we could help, and I told them we could,'' said Reynaud,
pastry chef at Kuwait's Crowne Plaza Hotel. ``I wasn't that afraid. I've
been baking in war zones for much of my life.''
Reynaud took over the whole operation, not only the Black Forest cake
and gooey meringues but also the steak au poivre and the Daoud Pasha
lamb stew.
Almost everything was prepared in Kuwait and sent in refrigerated
trucks, with an armed escort, on a 36-hour ride to Baghdad. Then Reynaud
and his 24 helpers boarded an aircraft.
Counting breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee break, the flying kitchen
crew produced 1,400 servings.
``A few elders worried there might be pork, and some people balked at
unfamiliar things, but mostly I think it was a hit,'' he said. In any
case, diners gave him rousing applause.
Tall, slim and graying at 48, Reynaud is the very picture of a French
patissier. He wears a tall white toque, small France flags on his white
tunic collars and de rigueur black clogs.
He learned his art in Provence, near Montelimar. Then, feeling
wanderlust, he took his show on the road. He worked five years until
1983 at the Caravelle in Benin on the troubled West African coast.
After a year in France, Reynaud got restless again. He finished the
1980s in Dubai and then went to the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991 to
the newly renovated Metropole, Moscow's first five-star hotel.
``We were having an aperitif on the terrace when the tanks rumbled by,''
he said. ``That livened up the day.'' Moments later, Boris Yeltsin
scrambled atop one of those tanks to declare Russia free.
Reynaud moved on to the Zagreb Intercontinental, and Croatia exploded in
warfare around him. After two years, he shifted to Indonesia, in the
hectic heart of Jakarta.
For six years, he and his Scottish wife ran a pastry shop and bakery in
Fort Williams, Scotland. But the cold drizzle and the calm were too much
to handle.
In 2000, the couple packed up their two sons, then aged 6 and 9, and
came to the Kuwait Crowne Plaza. There, despite 16-hour days and
catering parties for 1,000 people, he relaxed and took his boys to the
beach.
About his only hardship in the thriving but alcohol-free emirate was
suffering through fine dinners with nothing more than bootleg homemade
wine. Then another war landed in his lap.
``When I was asked to do this trip, I told my family only that I would
be in Iraq,'' Reynaud said. ``But my older son is at that age. When he
found out it was actually Baghdad, he said, 'Cool.'''
After French President Jacques Chirac refused to back an immediate
invasion, Reynaud caught some half-amused ragging from hawkish
colleagues. Kuwait, hardly fond of Saddam, mostly backed the war.
``I don't see why the Americans couldn't have waited a few more weeks
and gotten everyone else behind them,'' he said. But, he added, his
domain was pastry, not politics.
Still, the Baghdad banquet included one of his favorites, a pastry made
of egg yolk and sugar syrup. In French, it is called pate aux bombes.