Le savoir-être
Life has been slow recently—a good slow. I feel at home, I feel safe, I feel happy. I’m enjoying life again. My new job and city have been treating me well (aside from the construction down the street) and I’m taking advantage of this new life.
I’m really enjoying my new job at Les Cures Marines Hotel Thalasso & Spa. It’s only been three weeks, and they’re already letting me add my own creations to the menu! My famous scones are now a seasonal breakfast item, and I’ve got a dessert being added to the December menu at the restaurant. More on that next month.
I’m also really enjoying my new town. Trouville-sur-Mer is a great little town that actually has life under the age of 80! Where I was last, all the people my own age worked at the same hotel as me. While in Trouville-sur-Mer, there still is a large ageing population, but there are also plenty of young people. There’s also a plethora of stores and businesses less than a 5 minutes walk from my apartment. In 5 minutes, I can walk to a small grocery store; in 2 minutes, I can walk to a larger grocery store, both of which close at 8 pm, and not 6 pm! Instead of trekking on the bus for an hour to see an optician, I can now walk down the main boulevard to the optician or the bank. It is wonderful!
I’ve also been keeping quite busy with some projects on the side! An England-based academic journal recently published my first case study. In this case, I study the history of Aboriginal economic oppression in Canada and how the Osoyoos Indian Band overcame these obstacles to become one of the most prosperous bands in the country. You can read more about the case or download it from the CABI Digital Library. I’ve also launched a product - a recipe journal. The journal is modelled exactly like how I write my recipes in a professional environment. It’s a small book holding just enough recipes to be able to take those most important ones with you wherever you go. I use it as a notebook to take down recipes and notes before I get a chance to add them to my recipe manager app. I bring this notebook with me practically everywhere I go in case I come across some form of inspiration or an idea of a recipe. You can get your own copy of the journal here.
I’m very happy that I have an employer that is supportive of my goals and allows me to take the time to do what I enjoy. They are asking me to make some desserts and pastries from North America that would fit their needs or just for them to try. This welcoming atmosphere was also something I experienced in my interview back in August. Everyone’s curiosity, eagerness, and openness were portrayed in the interview and definitely transferred to the workplace. Thinking back to the interview, one word that was mentioned that I really liked was savoir-être. This was the first time I heard this word. Of course, I knew savoir-faire already, but savoir-être, what on earth could ‘know-being’ mean?
We all know what savoir-faire is—know-how. But we hear less about the other savoirs, savoir and savoir-être. In the simplest of terms, savoir is knowledge, savoir-faire is know-how, and savoir-être is your attitudes or frame of mind. Some characteristics that are central to savoir-être are empathy, creativity, audacity, motivation, vision, and curiosity.
You could say that my savoir-être has never changed. Or rather, the intensity of it has never changed. The different characteristics, or skills, of it have evolved through the years, but the intensity has always remained constant. I’ve had different amounts of empathy, creativity, audacity, motivation, vision, and curiosity throughout my life. I have my own way of being.
Part of why I came to France was to gain more savoir-faire, to learn how the French do things. I’ve definitely been learning this and am very happy with the progress made. I’ve found, though, that I can’t just do things the French way. Neither can I do things the North American way. I have a unique skill set and experiences from both Canada and France, which allows me to pull experience from both places and apply a technique between the two. You could say that I’m developing my own style of savoir-faire. I’m still defining my style of pastry and desserts. I know what I like, but I am still finding how I want to execute it.
More to come on my upcoming adventures next month!
Happy adventuring,
Ahmed
Fluffy Scones
Ingredients
430 g all-purpose flour
25 g baking powder
50 g sugar
5 g salt
225 g butter (cold)
250 g buttermilk
100 g raisins
zest of one orange
1 egg
Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Mix to combine. Add the raisins and orange zest and mix again.
Using the large holes of a cheesegrater, grate the cold butter into the dry ingredients. Once all of the butter is grated, mix the butter with the dry ingredients until all of the butter is covered in flour but not mixed in.
Add the buttermilk and mix with a spoon until it combines into a rough dough. There might be some flour left over.
Transfer the dough to a work surface. Divide the dough into four pieces and stack these pieces on top of each other. Using your hands, pat this mound into a disc using a downward motion.
Once a disc has formed, form the disc into a 6” diameter and approximately 1-2” height. Using a sharp knife, cut the disc into 8 wedges.
Carefully transfer the wedges to a parchment-lined baking sheet. In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Using a brush, brush the beaten egg on top of all of the wedges.
Bake this in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. The bottom of the scones should be lightly brown, the edges golden, and when pressed down in the middle, the scone should not have any give and should maintain its shape.