is a master baker, the first Romanian bread sommelière, beer sommelier and certified expert in the sensory analysis of bread. Born in Romania and currently living in Austria, Lara has been in love with the divine smell of freshly baked bread since her childhood, thanks to her grandmother Maia. Later, she rediscovered the fascination for sourdough bread through her husband, an Austrian who would carry bread in his luggage when he was working as an expat in Romania. A philology graduate, Lara gave up her career in education and chose instead to focus on educating the palate. Her great passion for bread led her to become a true specialist in the field, with professional training in Canada, Germany, France and Austria.

stretches between East and West, as his new album As Much As It Takes, the title of which sounds like a guideline for his journey, zigzagging from his Palestinian village of al-Ramah to the Montreux Jazz Festival. Influenced by the jazz he discovered in record shops as well as writer Majd Kayyal, lyricist for many of his songs and several albums including Better Than Berlin in 2020—a declaration of love to Haifa. A prolific composer for trios and quintets,Faraj has also written arrangements for orchestras, choirs and children’s songs. His latest album was born in residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. At times romantic and brilliant, it’s shot through with the tensions inherent in the conflict with Israel, inseparable from the personality of the Palestinian who considers his music to be an expression that is at once personal, universal

and fundamentally political.