A day in the life of Pastry Chef Mohammed Kessrwani of Paul, Muscat

A few days ago, I wrote my first blog post on Paul, Muscat.It was titled 'Baking Bread The Paul Way' and I'm happy to know that you have enjoyed reading it. Here is my second post, 'A day in the life of Pastry Chef Mohammed Kessrwani of Paul, Muscat' and hope you enjoy reading this one as well.

A  quick background on Paul-Paul is a French chain of bakeries and café restaurants established in 1889 in the city of Croix, in Northern France by Charlemagne Mayot. Today, there are over 500 franchised Paul bakery/café restaurants in many countries worldwide, viz.France, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom,  Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Japan, Taiwan, Jordan, China Egypt and the USA. This year Paul came to Muscat in Oman and has rapidly proved to be a very welcome addition to the range of restaurants already present here.

A glimpse of my two day stint observing and photographing the

operations at Paul Muscat

 A ‘regular’ Paul specializes in serving French products and the range of items  available include pastries, cakes, croissants, sandwiches, soups, quiches, tarts, crepes, eggs, and over 140 types of bread. In some countries, some restaurants also serve  tea, wine, beer, mineral water, soft drinks and coffee based drinks.

Chef Mohammed Kessrwani is all smiles

 Having a sweet tooth and being fond of baking myself, I'd specially asked to meet the Pastry Chef and that was how I found myself in the kitchens of Paul Muscat at 0730 hours and when I entered, was surprised to see Chef Mohammed Kessrwani already hard at work! Welcoming me and making sure I was wearing a cap to cover my hair, he positioned me where I could watch him clearly and had no objections to being photographed at his work station. My first impression was,'Gosh he looks so young!" 

And that was proved to be right when I learnt that he was 29 and had been working in Pastry for the last 14 years! 

Chef Mohammed Kessrwani has just finished the tarts

And the mouthwatering array of eclairs

As he tells it, "I come from a family which has been involved with pastry for some time now.My brother in law and some close relatives work in pastry in Lebanon and as a child there was nothing I loved to do more than watching them at work. It was the look of what they painstakingly crafted, but even more than that, the wonderful smells that accompanied what they did, that had me hooked to it. And at the very first chance I got, I joined as an apprentice at one of the local bakeries in my hometown in and eventually got a lucky break at Paul in Lebanon.Since then I have worked at Paul Dubai, trained as a Chocolatier, then worked as one in Dubai and am now working at Paul Muscat ever since it opened in Feb."

Looking around me as I watched him totally in command of what he did as the Pastry Chef of a very large restaurant such as this one, I could clearly see that he has come a  very long way since he was 14, and now has the overall responsibility of preparing and stocking the entire range of pastry and cakes for the day. 

Entering the kitchens for a shift that  runs from 4 am to 12 noon, he manages the entire range and how! When I entered the kitchen, he was putting the finishing touches to the cheesecakes and they were soon in the refrigerated trays in the cabinet just behind, ready for the shop assistants and waitresses to take out and slice as required by the customers.  

Making sure that all is in shape.

Fine-tuning and layering, oh so neatly!

Adding the cheesecake topping as well as the fruit

That was followed by the individual tarts, chocolate, as well as vanilla and watching him do that was  an extremely fascinating experience. For one, he was so very neat and efficient. For another, he was so quick- twenty minutes and a large tray of tarts was ready with the glaze as well as the fruit topping superbly arranged !

See the neat surface? 

All ready for service , plating and delighted customers!

A closer look:)

I decided to take a short break and head out towards the display and sale area- it was about 10 am by now and the restaurant was already buzzing with customers- coffee and cakes being the main item on the menu at almost every table that I could see. And this is what it looked like from the other side- absolutely delightful.. 

The view from the other side

There is a lot more that I learnt from Chef Mohammed and was invited by him the next day as well when I had the privilege of an exclusive demo of a  delightful 'Millefoit', but will tell you that story another day.

I'm closing for today with my take on Chef Mohammed that day  and  I left with his  words ringing in my ears.

"I passionately love working with pastry.I don't care how tired I may be for as long as I'm working, I'm happy. Its when I go back and have nothing much to do, that I start feeling the aches  and a sense of emptiness. Can't wait to get back to work the next day!"

Baking Bread, the 'Paul' way

MFK Fisher famously said, "The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight."and he couldn't be more right.Since time immemorial, bread has been the staple food in many countries worldwide and in many cases the word 'bread' is actually a synonym for food per se. 

Welcome to Paul

Bread that looks fabulous, smells delicious and tastes superb!

The complimentary bread basket, butter and olive paste

Paul at the MGM Mall in Muscat

Having had a delightful working lunch at Paul in Champs Elysees, Paris this June and having enjoyed every moment as well as every bite of what we ate there, we decided to check out the recently opened Paul at the MGM Mall in Muscat . So glad we did for it has become the benchmark for what good food, service and a sense of 'joie de vivre' is really all about. From seating customers to bringing out the delightful and complimentary bread baskets along with the little bowls of unsalted butter and olive paste to taking the order and detailing what each dish is, the staff really do know how to meet and sometimes even exceed customer expectations!

That lunch over, I decided to learn more about what really makes this very popular restaurant tick as well as watch and learn how bread, pastry and cuisine are created and managed here. Exactly two days later, thanks to the very responsive and helpful marketing and operations staff, I had the opportunity to spend two mornings here. 

Did I learn something in these two mornings? I'd say, I probably learnt  more than one could normally learn in a whole week! The experiences were so many and varied, that I will probably have to write at least 4 blog posts , which will be interspersed with some others as I go along. 

Bread is the warmest, kindest of all words. Write it always with a capital letter, like your own name."(Cafe Sign)

This one is on bread, so lets begin...

 At Paul the philosophy is very simple-excellent bread depends on excellent methods and time honored methods of production.At Paul, a key value is a 'Passion for bread'. As they tell it. "Water, flour or yeast, a little sea salt, a some savoir faire, a lot of patience- our principles are timeless.Our commitment is an every day commitment, offering you a wide range of fresh quality bread." 

So  to give you that superb bread that is uniquely Paul, Chef Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed and his assistant start work as early as 3 am . In a temperature controlled environment of abt 23 deg C, the first lot of dough is prepared early on and work begins for the day.

The baking is done in stages and there is a period of 'resting' each loaf before the next stage. I was given to understand that each loaf that comes out to the table has been in production for a period of 6-7 hours. Now if that is not asking for perfection, nothing else is!

Chef Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed and his asst.

His assistant prepares the dough

Lovely golden brown loaves 

The aroma in that bakery was just something else and that was when a thought popped into my head- what if someone tried to pop this in a bottle? In today's world, I'm fairly sure that this 'perfume would have customers lining up for it!

Oh, that aroma

See that colour? he asks me

Now see this next lot?

That bread goes with the salads and soups

Yes, Chef Ibrahim is happy...

It had been a very interesting session and I was totally charged, I could have gone on and on, which is exactly what I did- Heading to the Pastry section where Chef Mohammed Kessrwani gave me a very special demo of a Vanilla Millelefois, followed by the strawberry version.

But that is another whole story for yet another day...