The Alessi Dream

Chapter 1

If you ask a chef or a good cook, 'What is the secret for delicious food?', they will probably answer with 'practice' or 'ratio', but not Camilla Marietti. For her, the first thing that comes to mind when she thinks about food is love. Of course practice makes perfect and learning is the basis in everything, but love is the foundation and soul of food. At least that's what her grandmother, nonna Luci, taught her when she was a little kid. And she uses that key ingredient in everything she bakes in order to make the people who eat her pastries feel happy and loved just like she felt every time she ate her nonna's crostata, tiramisu, pasticciotto and all the goodies she made. Seeing people's happiness and satisfaction when they eat her desserts is one of the best feelings for her and it helps her find strength when she feels down.

Growing up without a mother was not easy and even though nonna Luci tried to fill that hole as much as she could, she was her nonna at the end of the day and not her mother. But Camilla would never complain about her life. She loves every bit of it, with all it's good and bad parts, because all these parts make up the person she is today and the person she will grow up to be tomorrow. Everything happens for a reason and yes, sometimes the things that happen have a negative influence on our lives, but in order for light to shine brightly there needs to be shadows as well. In fact that's how Camilla started to bake in the first place.

After her mother's sudden death Camilla fought with severe depression and anxiety. She was only 9 years old when it happened and it destroyed everything she believed in. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore and she felt like she was just floating aimlessly through life, without a reason or a purpose. Happiness made her feel guilty, because how could you be happy if your mother was not together with you to share the feeling? It was a rough period of time for her as well as for her family, and though she wants to say she suffered the most... she knows that that is her father. He didn't only lose the mother of his children but his partner in life as well. Only he moved on and that baffled her. How could he be happy without her? How could he enjoy life without her? How could he do all these things and not think about the loss and feel deep guilt? At first she couldn't understand or maybe she didn't want to understand, but she does now. There are things that you can control and things that you can't, you can't stop living just because you lost someone you loved deeply. Life is meant for you to live it at your best and of course it's hard sometimes! But you should never give up.

When she finally realised that, she was in the middle of helping her nonna make a crostata and she was hit by a rush of passion that coursed through her veins at the delicious smell that was coming out of the oven. Finally it was tasteful and not bland, finally she sensed emotions that made her feel human like everybody else and finally she felt that guilt leave her body little by little. All of that was triggered by the love she saw in nonna Luci while she baked. That made her want to try it herself and as such find out her true passion in life.

Now Camilla is all grown up at 24 years old and is working to fulfill her childhood dream, becoming the best pastry chef in Milano, or why not in the whole Italy? They say dream big and that is exactly what Camilla is doing. After everything she went through to finalize her studies and gain some experience, she is suddenly forced to settle down in one place and accomplish her goals in her home city, close to her family which she loves dearly. Although she would've liked to see more of the world on her own and even wander in Europe at some point, her family needs her now and when health is at bay things become more serious. Because even though her father can be a stubborn head sometimes, well most of the time, he is her papa and she has to take care of him now. Her career can be built up in Milano as well, she has confidence in her skills.

Enzo Marietti, Camilla's father, is a very respected and known man. He owns one of the best restaurants in Milano and another few here and there in the big cities of Italy. La Marietti Familia, as it is called, was originally a small restaurant in the central plaza of Milano, close to the duomo, run by Pietro Marietti, Enzo's father. At that time it was not as exclusive, but the great food and customer service combined with family teamwork served as a good start for what was to come. But nothing in this world is perfect and everything has its weaknesses. For La Marietti Familia is its lack of a heiress. This gave Enzo a hard time and all the stress that accumulated over the past years has led to him having heart problems, 'or so do the doctors say'.