Fedin Buicker, owner and pastry chef of this ‘Cafe Grindel’ was on the verge of erupting in anger at his staff upon belatedly hearing the news that Baroness Saratov’s family had booked a visit to the Cafe today.
‘You should have said that in advance. I’m going crazy.’
How can you tell me such an important guest was coming only after the guest came on the day of!
‘Why not delegate the reservations to someone else?’
Olga Byshovets, Baroness Saratov, was like a shining star in the upper circles lately, undoubtedly the first disciple of the commercial deity. If you count the profits made by herself by bringing chocolate through the southern trade route with coins, you could build a castle with coins instead of bricks, and you could fill the moat with the profits of Phoebe powder, which has become a necessity to inflate cookies. Recently, she invested in opera and made great profits, and hosted an exhibition of paintings by Mura Aylau.
The woman with the most cash in the empire, a baroness who is rumored to be able to divert the Vichegda River if she wished.
The fact that the baroness’s family came to Cafe Grindel seemed like another opportunity for him. Fedin Buicker had no intention of being satisfied with just one large bakery in the capital.
‘So even when I heard the harsh criticism for the first time, I closed the store right away and researched again.’
If he could get close to the baroness and get a big investment!
“They ordered five cakes?”
“Yes, cake and black tea…”
“What cake did they order?”
Fedin put the last strawberries on the cream, washed his hands, wiped the remaining moisture on his apron, and asked the staff. The staff hastily took out a note from his back pocket and answered.
“Uh… they ordered five of them: vanilla cream mille-feuille, strawberry fraisier, lemon meringue tart, pistachio éclair, and Mont Blanc.”
“Is that so.”
A satisfied smile formed on Fedin’s lips. It was good news that the two of them had ordered five cakes. As Fedin adjusted his collar to go upstairs, the employee followed with a somewhat flustered expression.
“Um, sir.”
“What is it?”
“Are you going to see them now?”
“Then would you like me to go up to the third floor to do a tap dance? Dust off the chandelier on the second floor? Speaking of which, that reminds me. Let’s dust off the chandelier on the second and third floor after today’s business ends.”
“Oh, yes, I understand. But what I was trying to say was, I don’t think they were just Baroness Saratov’s family…”
Fedin cut off the staff.
“Olga Byshovets is not just Baroness Saratov. She’s a woman who is protected by gold coins. Not everyone succeeds in the idea of selling a large and pretty piece of paper that is made at a printing shop for that money.”
Baroness Saratov had produced oversized posters of the opera she invested in and sold them at high prices. It was originally a desperate measure due to the disappearance of promotional posters from the streets, but they all sold out. This incident was still being talked about in the industry.
“Oh, I bought one of those too…”
“I bought one too.”
Fedin waved off the employee with an expression of annoyance. Truth be told, he hadn’t even seen that opera. With all the time he spent researching and working on cakes, where would he find the time to watch an opera? He considered following opera singers around and wasting time reading gossip magazines to be utterly pathetic.
Yet, his purchase of that poster was partly out of curiosity about what it was all about, serving as small talk material when dealing with investors.
Upon reaching the third floor, Fedin realized he hadn’t heard the impression of the important guests, but he quickly spotted them. There was a couple sitting on the terrace seats, dressed elegantly enough to stand out among the sophisticated clientele on the third floor.
There were three remaining cakes on the table, half of which had only cream on it. They were clear when they said they had ordered five cakes. Fedin cleared the collar and cuffs again.
‘Good. Very good. Confidently, but not too much. Not obsequiously, but respectfully.’
It wasn’t Baroness Saratov herself anyway, so there was no need to overdo it. The purpose of this was to gently impress her relatives with respectful but sincere treatment, delicious cake, and nice interior design. And just as he took a step forward…
“…Who said I don’t like it? I’m enjoying it. Why would you say that?”
“I’m sad if you think I wouldn’t know you’re lying.”
“But… still… making cakes is such a difficult task. If we leave such a meticulously made cake like this, it would be disappointing for the patissier too…”
The murmur of the two was very small. Perhaps Fedin wouldn’t have heard it if he wasn’t on high alert. The back of his neck became stiff for a moment.
‘The cake isn’t good?’
As he turned his gaze, indeed, there were only a few bites taken from the remaining cakes. From what he heard, it seemed like the girl was reluctantly eating the cake that didn’t suit her taste. Fedin bit his lip tightly, then released it and clenched his fist. Then, he took another step forward.
“Are you Lady Asha Byshovets, who made a reservation today? How do you find the cakes? Are they to your liking?”
At the sound of his voice, the girl turned to him. The young man already seemed to know he had arrived. The girl seemed a little surprised at first, but quickly smiled.
“Yes, they’re fine. Uh, I’m enjoying my meal.”
Few people can criticize someone in front of their face. Fedin clenched his fist.
“Well, that’s good to hear. But if there’s anything you don’t like, please feel free to let us know. We’ll take it into consideration.”
Fedin had heard only once in his life that the cake he made was tasteless. It was from the Marchioness Tataricha, and when he first heard it, he was so angry that he couldn’t sleep.
He also realized then that it was because of his uncle, the head chef of the imperial family, that he had only heard that the cake he made was delicious.
During the first week, Fedin was only angry at the Marchioness Tataricha for her criticism – who did she think she was to speak ill of pastries made by others! However, Fedin was able to overcome it. There was some meaning in that criticism, and it was what drove him to refine and polish his craft to what the shop was now.
Thanks to that, it was a success that everyone could see! If the girl who seemed to be a relative of the Byshovets could provide a proper evaluation, he could demonstrate that he valued customer feedback.
Even if not, he needed to hear what she had to say. After all, it was only the second time in his life that he had heard that his cakes weren’t good! But the girl just waved her hand.
“Well, I bake cakes as a hobby at home, so it’s interesting how different it tastes.”
“You bake cakes? Then I’m even more curious about your opinion. Please, do share.”
The girl hesitated even at his words.
“Actually, I’ve never had dessert outside before*…”
*TN: I can only assume that it’s because Asha always orders to go and eats the desserts at home.
“That doesn’t matter at all.”
Fedin said firmly yet gently. The girl still seemed hesitant, but his words seemed to give her some courage. Fedin squared his jaw and met the girl’s light green eyes.
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“I’m really sorry, I’m truly sorry. We ran out of ingredients today…”
“Thank you for caring about Cafe Grindel. We have run out of ingredients prepared, we apologize…”
Fedin heard the apologies from the staff, who were turning away customers earlier than usual, while he sat blankly in the kitchen.
The reason for closing the shop early today was because of Fedin’s current state. Soon, he heard the staff saying their goodbyes as they left, but Fedin couldn’t bring himself to respond. He was lost in thought, replaying the girl’s words in his mind.
– I think it was a little hot when you made the dough. The oven temperature for baking the tart shell seems to have been low. The bottom of the tart shell is well cooked, but the top seems undercooked. On this side, it seems like the oven temperature is high for baking the tart shell…
In truth, Fedin hadn’t expected such remarks. He thought the girl would only comment on whether the cake was too sweet or not sweet enough, had a strange taste, was too heavy, or too sour. At best, he thought the girl would say that.
‘Something was wrong with the cooling unit?’
The space for making cold dough was a place converted from a refrigerated warehouse, and several homemade cooling units were attached. One of them had malfunctioned, but the staff didn’t mention it because the others were fine, and the temperature didn’t rise significantly.
– The meringue on the lemon tart seemed to have a bit of egg yolk in it.
When Fedin stomped down to the kitchen, why did he witness an employee who was making meringue fail to separate the egg whites and take the yolk out of the bowl!
– When making the crème mousseline, um… if you reduce the amount of butter just a little bit, and melt half of the butter, the texture might become more vibrant. Um, it might be cumbersome to add one more process when making it in bulk, right?
Fedin was tearing his hair out. He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t find the words. The girl seemed to express herself as best as she could, with an expression of just wanting to help.
– Since it’s such a large Cafe, tasks are divided among several people, right? So there are inevitable problems…
When he dashed back up to the third floor after confirming that everything the girl said was true, both of them had disappeared without a trace.
According to the staff, they left in a hurry because someone came to find them urgently. Fedin splashed water on his face vigorously and stood in front of the pot.
He put vanilla beans scraped from half of the split vanilla bean into the pan with the milk, and added egg yolks, sugar, and flour bit by bit. Stirring the cream to prevent it from sticking to the bottom was quite demanding. Since it was a task he had assigned to another staff member, it had been a long time since he held the spoon himself.
With the completed hot cream next to him, Fedin paused while mixing the butter. The girl had said to reduce the amount of butter just a little bit.
‘If it’s not enough, I can always add more.’
Dividing the measured butter in half, he put one half directly into the cream and melted the remaining half. The waiting time for the cream to cool down felt like an eternity.
Finally, when the cream cooled down to the right temperature, and he tasted it with a spoon, Fedin rushed out of the refrigerated room to find Olga Byshovets’s contact information.
To ask who that girl was, who she bought the pastries for. It had been a long time since the idea of obtaining investment from Baroness Saratov had vanished from his mind.
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“…I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Karnov’s expression on the opposite side of the carriage was unusually hard. Asha hurriedly shook her hand. It was Cyril, Alexei’s knight, who came to pick up Karnov.
“If Alyosha is calling Karnov on a holiday, it must be something urgent.”
“…Sorry. It was the day we promised to go out together…”
“No, it was actually a bit awkward. I felt like I was only hurting the pastry chef by telling him… but Cyril came and saved me.”
Asha squinted her eyes and smiled. A faint smile finally appeared on Karnov’s face.
“But I guess Alyosha wouldn’t call so suddenly unless it was something bad?”
“It’s probably about my estate. It shouldn’t be anything serious.”
“What happened to Karnov’s estate?”
“Discovery of a new mine?”
Karnov joked. Asha pursed her lips, knowing he was trying to change the subject. When the carriage arrived quickly at the palace, Karnov quickly kissed Asha’s hand and turned away. Asha looked at him with a worried expression before turning to face Lise, who had come to greet them, and quickly smiled.
“Lise!”
“I heard that His Highness the Crown Prince called Lord Karnov in a hurry.”
“Yeah, so… we sent him off.”
“It’s rare for the two of you to go out together…”
Asha laughed mischievously at Lise, who held her bonnet in her hand with a lowered eyebrow.
“In the old days, if I said I was going to hang out with Karnov, Lise would worry.”
Lise’s face turned slightly red.
“W,well, back then, Your Highness was still very young, so I couldn’t help but worry.”
“And am I much older now?”
Lise smiled as she looked down at Asha, who had grown taller and had a more defined jawline.
“Yes, you’ve grown taller than my shoulders. And now…”
“Yes?”
Lise tried to continue speaking but stopped and changed the subject.
“Oh, by the way, how was the shop you visited today?”
“The interior was very pretty, and the shop was quite large. But, when I actually saw it, I felt like I preferred smaller shops. Large shops require too many people… It seems too difficult for me.”
“If you hire people to manage it, you won’t have to worry about hiring people.”
“Yeah, but I want to personally distribute the desserts I make…”
Asha smiled with her fingertips together, and when she recalled other advantages, she winked.
“And if the shop gets smaller, I won’t have to collect buttons anymore. I was thinking about how to stop them from competing with buttons.”
Lise walked beside Asha, matching her pace, and smiled contentedly.
“That’s really fortunate. I wasn’t sure what would happen to the competition this summer.”
“Huh?”
Asha blinked at Lise.
“Why this summer?”
“His Majesty said he’s going to host a grand birthday party for you this year.”
