Yes Chef, No Chef - By Susan Willis Page 0,54
everything she did she gave the projects her full attention.
Later that afternoon in the meeting room, Harry, Alice, Frances and Katie sat around the big central table ready to present their new lines to everyone from the commercial, buying, and planning teams. David sat at the head of the table and Katie avoided his eye because she’d heard he hadn’t been too pleased when she’d walked away from Alex’s meet and greet session and they’d never really spoken since last week in the personnel office. She could tell when he’d entered the room that he was trying to catch her eye and give her a friendly ‘it wasn’t my fault’ smile, and although Katie knew it wasn’t, she couldn’t bring herself to play the game anymore.
Harry and Alice had been responsible for getting samples of the six desserts, serving plates and cutlery for everyone, and Alice’s gentle blue eyes were huge with apprehension while Katie urged her to empty the carrot muffin dessert onto a plate and pass it around everyone at the table. The product had been Alice’s initial idea and Katie wanted her to start to take ownership, criticism, and praise for her work. Alice was young, timid and lacked confidence but had graduated from her food science degree with a first class honours and Katie had been able to see a little of herself in Alice during the interview, which along with her meticulous attention to detail, was the reason she’d chosen her.
Everyone took a small spoonful of the dessert to taste and with a slightly shaky voice and a blushing red face Alice said, “Th…this product is called Carrot Muffin dessert and it has orange compote, carrot cake, Madagascan mousse, and is hand finished with white chocolate curls.”
Katie could see Alice take a deep breath once she’d sat back down again and she smiled reassuringly at her. They all knew Alice was shy and backed away from talking at meetings or speaking in front of an audience but Frances had told her it was all part of the job which she would have to get used to and with a gentle hug of reassurance before they’d started Katie told her that the more she did it the easier it would become.
Katie explained the commercial rationale behind the dessert project. “And that’s why we’ve chosen this combination, weight, and new style of pot, which I know is slightly different to the standard pot we already have on our shelves but it is necessary to display the muffin-style product correctly.”
The packaging technologist groaned about the cost and extra work of introducing another new pot to the business and Frances locked heads with him explaining it wouldn’t look right in their current shaped pot. He still continued to argue with her and Katie interrupted as peace maker by asking Harry to bring an empty pot they were currently using from her desk.
In the meanwhile everyone gave their comments about the dessert and the consensus of opinion was that the flavours were delicious together, the carrot cake was moist and spongy, and the orange compote was seductively sweet with the lovely light mousse.
David asked, “And why are we using white chocolate? Because I remember reading a consumer report from our commercial guys that said milk chocolate is still preferred to dark and white?
Before Katie could answer Alice gasped and said determinedly, “Oh no, we couldn’t use milk chocolate with white mousse and orange flavourings. It just wouldn’t work, I mean, it wouldn’t taste right at all!”
Katie could hear Frances tittering in delight next to her and Katie smiled encouragingly at Alice who was now blushing scarlet from her neck up to the roots of her mousey hair line. This was what she’d hoped to see in Alice and had known that one day her passion for her work would override her nerves.
David nodded satisfactorily. “Fine, I bow to your culinary expertise, Alice,” he said, teasing her gently and for the first time that afternoon Katie smiled at him in gratitude.
Harry came back into the room with the empty pot and Frances filled it with the mousse, sauce, and carrot cake, to which everyone agreed that it looked out of place and the new pot would have to be commissioned. Frances smirked in triumph at the packaging technologist with a ‘don’t even try to tell me my job look’ and the meeting continued all afternoon examining the other five products.
When Katie arrived home that evening her email inbox had over fifteen