“When we eat a cake, we also eat a story”

In life, I start from the principle that you have to love what you do. I’m 24 years old and I believe I have the best scenario possible and imaginable: I do what I want, what I like. For me, success is not being dressed in a suit and tie, sitting at a desk all day, but simply being happy when you get up in the morning, happy to do what you do… Five years ago, after getting my baccalaureate, I enrolled in a work-study BTS in customer relations negotiation. I lasted a day. I realized that I was in no hurry, that I had to find my way. I then decided to take a sabbatical year.

I worked as a store clerk, but I was active on social media, like most young people. I had fun making little videos, until the day a friend posted one of my sketches on Facebook. The next day, we had 10 million views. We understood nothing. So I started on the networks, Instagram, YouTube, and, during the confinement, the videos were a hit. I don’t have a favorite subject, I remain myself in front of the camera, I don’t lie, I’m sincere and I talk about everything, family, friends, fashion, sports, food … Because cooking is very important in our family.

Awesome Culinary Totes

I was born in Algeria, near Oran, and I grew up in the Paris region. My father left for France just after I was born. We stayed with my mother in Algeria for two years before joining him. She is a great cook, particularly strong in pastry. She knows how to do everything. I help her sometimes, doing the clerk, but I think I’m slowing her down. My mother often prepares feasts for the family, for weddings, parties. She loves a challenge and, as soon as she comes across a new recipe, she tries to make it: she prepares royal couscous as well as sublime lasagna, Japanese brioches as croissants, Yule logs as tiramisus.

My favorite dessert is strawberry, which she always made for my birthday in July. I’m not a big fan of fruit, but I love this cake, which is simple, light and delicious. As for the dish that I can literally eat every day, it is bricks. You can prepare them with anything, meat, vegetables, cheese, whatever you have on hand, you can make them vegetarian or even sweet. Bricks are awesome culinary catch-alls, just stuff them, fold them and fry them, or even bake them. It’s always good ! We always put them on the table during Ramadan, it’s the first dish we eat at sunset.

Cooking is an art, and also the subject of the film in which I play Yazid, a young man in difficulty who develops a passion for pastry and goes on to the championship. With this film, I discovered that gastronomy was a complicated, intense universe, that you had to work like crazy to get there. When we eat a cake, we also eat a story, we eat love, work and talent with a little vanilla in it.