Paris Journal: The best croissants not in Paris

Interview with Chef Benjamin Messaoui

Interviewed by Moristotle

My wife’s and my absolute favorite bakery anywhere in the world outside Paris is The French Corner Bakery, in Durham, North Carolina, right around the corner from Elliotte’s Pet Spa, where we regularly take Siegfried for baths and grooming. (It seems to be Elliotte’s and James’s favorite bakery too, judging by how often one of them pops out of the spa to go around the corner.)
    And our favorite baker anywhere (including Paris) is Chef Benjamin Messaoui, the proprietor of The French Corner Bakery. His shop is a delight, with its Parisian décor and ambience, its photographs and signs, and, and, and its pastry displays! I am grateful to the Chef for granting me an interview. My questions are in italics.

One of the most memorable things you told Carolyn and me, the first time we came into your French Corner Bakery, was that you had learned the art of baking in Paris, as a teenager. Were you working in a local baker’s shop? What were the circumstances?
    I have been in the bakery business for a long time. My uncle and my godfather are both bakers and pastry chefs, in the 13th arrondissement, so from a young age I got to evolve in kitchens. Choosing a trade was natural for me. I didn’t have to think twice.

Over the years, what other ways have you perfected your skills?
    By working in different regions of France, from Normandy to Provence, from Strasbourg to the French Riviera. I have also worked in different countries.

When did you come to America, and what were the circumstances? Tell us about your roots.
    I first came to America in 1998, thinking I was looking for the American dream, but I know now I was merely a feather in the wind and that many questions, spiritual and existential, would be answered.

The “feather in the wind” analogy is provocative. Would you share a question or two that have been answered during your sojourn in America? And what the answers were?
    Something that I already thought has been confirmed: the arrogance of men has no limit in their belief that they are captain of their own souls, when they’re only the recipients of God’s grace.

Have you visited Paris many times since you were a teenager? What changes have you observed? Which do you applaud, and which decry?
    I lived in Paris all my life [before 1998]. Paris has always been my base camp. In the eyes of the new generation, the Paris that I love doesn’t exist anymore. But for the seeker, the true lover, the Paris of the youth of the 20th century is still there. You can discover a gem in the corner of a street in Montmartre. You can walk a street with paving stones directly from the Bastille. You can see two lovers promising each other the world on le Pont des Arts. But much in Paris that I do not recognize now I can neither like nor dislike.

Chef, as I said in an early one of my Paris Journal entries, Carolyn several times said while we were there, “This croissant isn’t as good as Benjamin’s,” and only once did she say, “This one is as good as Benjamin’s.” How could that be? What do you think is up with contemporary Parisian boulangers and patissers?
    I have no clue.
    But will you and Carolyn be going back to Paris soon?

We don’t have a return scheduled at the moment…. [Two years ago today, April 15, Carolyn and I were in Paris for our 50th wedding anniversary.]
    An article about The French Corner Bakery appeared in the September 2015 issue of Durham Magazine (“Our Daily Bread,” by Virginia Robinson). It featured four of your breads: whole wheat cranberry and pecan, focaccia, the classic baguette, and your mother’s formula challah. Two and a half years later, do these four items continue to enjoy top billing? Have any other breads joined them there?
    Yes, those breads are the signature breads but they have been joined by seasonal breads such as the sun-dried tomato, the rye raisin, and the sourdough chocolate chip.

I know from visiting the shopping area where your bakery is located that you work long, regular hours. How do you like that? How can you go in, day after day, to bake the same breads, the same tarts, the same patisseries? What sustains you, keeps you going?
    In anything that I do, anything that I say, anything that I think, I know that my strength or the quality of my product has been given to me by the Lord. God has blessed me with two good hands, so I try and be a blessing for others.

We enjoy your joke (is it really a joke?) that we shouldn’t trust a thin baker. Do you indeed eat a bit of everything you bake? Did you learn this “taste test” in Paris, during your apprenticeship?
    Yes, I am a proud artisan. If the quality of my work does not satisfy my own taste, it is not good enough to be put on the display rack.

You have had a dependable staff of young people to serve the French Corner Bakery’s many customers. What is your philosophy as an employer, a businessman?
    The only thing more important than the customers is the quality of my creations. Without the quality there is no costumer. It is very hard to have a good reputation, but very easy to lose it.

Are their some bedrock, fundamental principles of baking that you would share with would-be master bakers among our readers?
    Love what you do. In fact, it is pretty simple: All you have to be willing to do is to learn the trade the right way, from the right person, and then perpetuate the tradition. That is it.
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[Editor’s Note: The French Corner Bakery doesn’t have a website, but it does have a Facebook page, which currently features the photo below:

Caution: you might like to eat something before you visit Facebook, to avoid being overcome by a desperate hunger for beautiful baked goods….]

Copyright © 2018 by Chef Benjamin Messaoui & Moristotle