Between her pediatric consultations and a pancake party – “you have to respect the seasonality of things” – Noha Baz opens a parenthesis and, beyond her latest book that she comes to present in Chartres, unfolds her life and opens her heart.
Born in Aleppo, having grown up in Lebanon, then in Switzerland and France, this woman never ceases to divide herself between East and West. “I am made of these components”, says the woman who decided to become a pediatrician at the age of 12. “Children are the future, they are hope”, says Noha Baz, mother of two daughters who have given her three grandchildren.
War is a school of life because it teaches you to go to the essential.
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She studied between Paris and Beirut where she did her internship. “A strange adventure. War is a school of life because it teaches you to go to the essential. I was confronted with situations for which I was not prepared. I was confronted with daily suffering, with people who did not have the means to treat themselves. Being a woman on duty in the emergency room in Beirut, when you are 22 years old, teaches you what is important. And when you are a woman in charge of the emergency room, you have to have a certain self-control and go beyond appearances. I came in with a different, very European scheme.”
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I swore to myself that once I graduated and became established, I would do everything to ensure that dramatic situations would not be repeated.
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This is why, later, while she was practicing medicine at the Necker-Enfants malades hospital in Paris, she created an association to help disadvantaged Lebanese children, “Les petits soleils” in connection with the Hotel Dieu of Beirut and Necker. Today, more than twenty years later, some 30,000 children have been rescued. “A drop in the bucket in a world of immense needs, but an extraordinary human adventure,” says Noha Baz.
Noha Baz created about twenty years ago the association “Les petits soleils”, a non-governmental organization whose objective is to provide medical assistance to any underprivileged child living on Lebanese soil.
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“I witnessed so much distress while doing my internship that I swore to myself, once I graduated and established myself, that I would do everything to ensure that dramatic situations would not be repeated.
These “little suns” shine even brighter now that Noha Baz, who writes and publishes, dedicates her entire copyright to them.
Writing is a means of transmission and sharing, it is liberating.
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For in this whirlwind of life that animates her, she concretizes her love of language, of words and of writing. “I am a book lover. Writing is a means of transmission and sharing, it is liberating and allows for moments of calm, introspection and solitude which are necessary for me. Because we seek within ourselves to give the best we have, words are jubilant.”
The engine of this jubilation, Noha Baz has honed it with her thesis entitled “The transmission of taste to children”, written at the end of the course of advanced studies in taste and gastronomy at the University of Reims where she graduated in 2009.
Three components of her life are now intertwined: medicine, writing and gastronomy.
For me, gastronomy is above all culture, it tells the story of a country as well as a history lesson.
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In his “family of gourmands” where everything “was homemade, I learned about tastes. There was seasonality, customs. Traditions tie you to life, they are landmarks, anchors for children. And for me, gastronomy is above all culture, it tells the story of a country as well as a history lesson.
The combination of her passions means that today, Noha Baz divides her time between pediatrics, gastronomy and writing, in a constantly renewed spirit of sharing and transmission.
In “Tastes of Lebanon”, Chef Joe Barza and Noha Baz share 60 of the best and most authentic recipes from Lebanon in a unique gourmet journey. Photos : © Aline Princet/Mango éditions
“Books are vectors of communication, extraordinary means of exchange. Going towards others, today, in what we will soon call the next world, with a book, is a charming way to do it. Culture is one of the stable values when many things are wavering.”
So, in 2019, she puts her foot down on the big writing block with There is no shame in preferring happinessa primer on the life of this woman considered “one of the most influential in Lebanon, and the most inspiring in the world” according to the back cover of her book.
Six other titles will follow -four of which will be published by Épure in the collection “Dix façons de préparer”: zaatar, pomegranate, essential oils and mastic of lentisque- until this jewel of Lebanese gastronomy named Tastes of Lebanon.
I told the country as I like it, the one you see with your heart.
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“Two months after the explosion in the port of Beirut, an absolute horror, on August 4, 2020, the publisher Mango knocked on my door and offered me a book on Lebanon. I was given carte blanche: I told the story of the country as I love it, the one you see with your heart. By showing that the land is beautiful. Even if there are political crises, a land remains beautiful and we must look at these small everyday things that are the salt of life.
Two Lebanese from Dreux wounded by the explosion in the port of Beirut
Noha Baz considers this book “a tool of memory and hope. I wanted to talk about Lebanon in a different way. I was born in a volcanic region, I have never known a land of peace except for a few interludes. Despite everything, I retained the beauty of this land and I wanted to tell it. This book is a form of resistance. It is also a punch because it speaks positively of the country. And to transmit the light of a country is to make people want to come back.
Before his concert in Limoges, Ibrahim Maalouf talks about his “40 Melodies” and the world
French, Lebanese and Swiss, Noha Baz belongs to these three cultures. “My country is French, I only learned Arabic at the age of 10. But I can’t not think about Lebanon, my relationship with this country is daily.
Like a bridge between East and West…
Tastes of Lebanon. Chef Joe Barza and Noha Baz share 60 of the best and most authentic recipes from Lebanon in a unique gourmet journey. In addition to the recipes, texts, atmospheres and portraits of personalities of Lebanese origin (Nadine Labaki, Ibrahim Maalouf…) who evoke their memories of cooking, their favorite dishes and the sensory images to which they are attached. In the collection “Goûts d’ailleurs” of Mango editions. 29,95 €.
Dedication. Saturday, February 12, from 10:20 am, at the bookstore L’Esperluète, Noël-Ballay street, in Chartres. A tasting of Lebanese food will accompany this dedication of Tastes of Lebanon, by Noha Baz.
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Laurence Gélineau
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