Desserts & Dramas

Chapter 34

The sleepless nights led Sofia to arrive at the bakery earlier than her usual schedule the following week. Mondays were the staff's day off to recover from the weekend events, but by Tuesday she was there much earlier than usual. She wanted to use this time to check the supplies and the condition of the utensils for the next purchases instead of whining at home. When she arrived at the shop, she realized that she was not alone.

"Good morning Sofia, I didn't expect to see you so early."

"I didn't expect to find you here either, Gisele." Sofia answered, "What are you doing?"

Sofia noticed the basins on the countertop and some smaller pots, but could not see what was inside them. Some little brown jars with white labels showed the names of common cooking essences, but they were not on the menu Sofia had developed months ago.

"Look, I wanted to surprise you," Gisele replied, "Show a little creativity and proactivity, you know? But you arrived before I finished the tests."

Gisele explained about the cooking program she had watched a few weeks ago and how an English chef was using certain essences to enhance the flavors in his savory dishes. So she thought she could do the same with desserts. The essence kit she had ordered had only arrived the day before, but she didn't want to waste any time, and immediately went to do some tests to show to the chef. And there she was with a bowl of vanilla cream and some essences.

"I understand Gisele, I admire your enthusiasm to bring new things. I heard about this technique when I was in France. You have to be very careful not to overdo it with the essence and it becomes cloying and artificial. What have you been able to test?"

"For now, the only sample to try is this one with lavender. The rest haven't had the right time yet." Gisele took a spoon from the side and handed both to Sofia.

"I didn't know there was a time requirement."

"You know how in the bakery everything must be exact." Gisele answered.

"It's true. To be honest, I found it a bit strong. Maybe you should reduce the dose. What are the other flavors?"

"Orange, lemon grass, red roses, almonds... and the rest I haven't even begun to test. It is quite a diverse kit."

"Be careful with the flavors that we can get naturally. The more fresh fruit or herbs, the more the customers will like it. Keep testing and let me know if any composition works out."

"That's fine. When I get satisfying results, I'll let you know."

"I'll check the supplies before the rest of the team shows up." Sofia, oblivious to her employee's reactions, disappeared into the warehouse.

Gisele tried hard to keep a smile on her face. She thought that her boss would be more excited by her initiative, maybe she would participate in the creation. However, she did not devote more than a few seconds to her. She continued on the bench to finish the experiments she had already started.

Sofia could still hear some huffing and muttering from the employee talking to herself as she counted the amount of wheat, sugar or stirred the little glass jars. She was happy that she had hired Gisele. Due to her humble background, she was extremely hard working and paid attention to everything Sofia did in order to absorb as much learning as possible. This was also the case the day Sofia met her.

She had been invited to teach a clafoutis class precisely in the technical cooking class where Gisele was attending. The recipe was a typical French sweet consisting of a cream with whole cherries baked in the oven in the shape of a pie, perfect for a chef recently arrived from France to teach the students. Gisele stood out for her dedication, number of questions, and excellent execution of the sweet, earning her a hire shortly thereafter. She did not have the same resume or experience as many of the candidates Sofia interviewed to help her with the fine sweets for events. However, the few places she had worked had nothing but compliments and good recommendations, so Sofia had no choice but to hire her.

Gisele questioned her a lot about the future in the company, possibilities for career growth, and especially if desserts was something with a high financial return. Even too insistent, if Sofia could remember correctly the five times Gisele asked her "but does it make money?" Sofia took it as a concern of her to trade big restaurant kitchens for a small bakery, but she offered a fair wage and much more comfortable working hours. The chef could not yet give her such exact answers about turnover, as she was at the beginning of the business, however, she was confident that her sweets would be very successful. And she needed a team to match so that her business could grow.

Of course, there were secrets in her recipes that Sofia didn't reveal to anyone, and she was careful that no one would learn. Tricks and measures that made her desserts different and that she had also battled to learn, often through rights ands wrongs. She wanted to teach her employees as much as she could, however, she knew she had a business to run and every company had its formulas for success.

After a few hours of the two working quietly on their tasks, Mrs. Maria and Yasmin arrived. They soon took up their scheduled activities in the kitchen and the day began.

"Yasmin said that her sister's wedding was beautiful" Mrs. Maria mentioned to Sofia.

Due to Mrs. Maria's older age, Sofia established that, besides the temporary employees that she hired according to the need for each party, only the young women would participate in the night events. This way, she would not suffer from the fatigue of working late at night, often on her feet for a long period of time. However, this prevented Mrs. Maria from attending the more interesting and sophisticated events that always took place at night, leaving her to find out the details from her daughter and other members of the team.

"Yes, it was. She had very good taste in the choice of decoration and groom" Sofia smiled.

"And the desserts," Gisele added.

"It's true," Sofia laughed.

"People were so fancy, I've never seen so much glitter" Yasmin remarked " I loved it."

"If everything goes well, this wedding will bring us a lot of new clients and we will have a lot of work ahead of us. As soon as my sister returns from her honeymoon, I'll find out more about what the guests thought of our work. I am confident that it was positive!

"Sofia, don't worry, I'm sure everyone loved it," Gisele replied, "I was observing with Yasmin while we took care of the refills and all we saw were smiles, wasn't that right?"

Gisele looked at Yasmin, who was taking some pans from the top shelf of the cupboard. As she was distracted by Gisele's comment and turned to answer, she bumped into the handle of a pan and dropped a large amount of utensils, pans and molds. The cacophony of metal on the floor pulled everyone from their positions. For a brief moment, no one reacted. Everyone was looking at the big mess on the side of the kitchen where Yasmin was.