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Mel's New Bakery


melmck

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The key to job security is to make yourself so damn valuable that your employer wonders how they got along without you.

Business consultants are fond of saying that "everybody is expendable," that a business can thrive even with the loss of a key employee. Frankly, I've found the opposite to be true. The departure of a talented, experienced, hard-working, loyal staffer can wreak havoc on a business and, if that business is already on the edge, can fatally tilt it over the precipice.

To have a baker/pc like chefpeon would be a godsend - every employer's dream. I wish there were more of you out there. We do everything we can to keep the good ones. But they seem so few and far between.

Cheers,

Steve Smith

Glacier Country

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I no longer have job paranoia.....because I know I'm the kind of person most employers are looking for, and when they get me they realize they've hit the jackpot. I'm loyal, I CARE, I do tons of things "off the clock" without being asked, I bring lots of knowledge, and I'm dependable as hell. I have an immune system that knocks out everything....I never get sick, and I never call out.....I'm so lucky that way. The key to job security is to make yourself so damn valuable that your employer wonders how they got along without you. And.....if they do go out of business, you'll get a hell of a reference......

Call me when you relocate to Chicago!!! ; )

Marjorie

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Let me just say that I am so sick of the kitchen drama soap-opera. In my life and on TV. I don't know how Rocco and crew do everything with cameras on them. Crazy! I will say that I am seriously holding back on this here blog. So many stories that may just have to wait for a book deal, because I'm not spilling it for free. Too paranoid now. "They're coming to take me away. ha ha." :raz:

Although I will watch Iron Chef on Sunday...

I want to spew my writing like Jim Carroll, dark and raw. The election depressed me. Whenever I think of it , I get nauseous. So I want to write angry..but now I must be careful of my words. "Paranoia-will-destroy-ya"

I have at least 5 people a day calling me about fucking merchant services. When you answer the phone they try to trick you-- they say, oh how is the machine running? Fine, OK what type of paper did you need me to send for it? NONE. They will just send you cases of shit and then bill you for it later!! Between them and AKvatek, I wonder about the mentality of a business that is based on dishonesty, theivery, scams. Something new every day!

Oh, by the way , I have now become a total bitch.

Melissa McKinney

Chef/Owner Criollo Bakery

mel@criollobakery.com

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It is a bummer that you can get on a "no call" list for your residence, but not your business. I owned my business for 7 years and it was amazing how much time you can waste answering junk phone calls.

The other thing that really pissed me off was the hood cleaning company that cashed my payment check but didn't record it in their books. They refused to do the legwork to find it and put the entire burden on me threating my credit rating. The person I dealt with was so snotty and accused me of lying. I eventually found the time to produce a copy of the check (front and back) and didn't get as much as an apology. Never dealt with them again.

Yes, it seems so galmorous from the outside to own your own business.

Mel, I visited your shop a couple weeks ago and your work is stunning. It's a ways from home however, but I've told various folks who live closer to check it out. Hope you can keep your patience during the holiday season!

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By all means folks, if anyone comes into my bakery from EG please ask for me, I'd be glad to meet you, and since I am always here, and I mean always, you can see the woman behind the tales.

Good news---there will be a mention in Sunset magazine, unfortunately sans photos, they did this right while I was getting ready to open. But a mention nonetheless. There may be something coming up in Food & Wine also. WOOOO--HOOOOO!!! Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!!

Melissa McKinney

Chef/Owner Criollo Bakery

mel@criollobakery.com

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Yes, the election blues will do that to you.

I could hardly stomach going to my restaurant gig, where the owner is such a staunch, cheap assed Republican.

I seriously thought about dumping my gig, especially if he gloated about it.

He didn't, I didn't.

Everywhere I went, I kept on thinking, "I'm probably in the same room with THOSE people, the one's who are proud to have someone representing them who can hardly speak English".

Got into an argument with an Albertson's cashier, not really an argument, per se, she asked me if I wanted to donate a buck to diabetes research, I told her I wouldn't be able to afford stuff like that for the next four years. It went on from there.

So I empathize, even though that comment about "employees will always bitch and whine about everything" seriously frosted my you know whats until Tuesday's fiasco.

I hope you don't get so wound up you turn into the female version of the guy who owns the restaurant I work at.

I only bitch about the 'Groundhog Day' like conditions and situations that never change for some strange reason.

2317/5000

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Have you read this whole thing? I'm leaving half of the dirt that's really happening out. I have every right to make that comment. and I have been an employee for someone else my whole life, and every place I've ever worked the walk-in is the bashing zone. Screaming zone. Kick the veal bones room. There is always something that is imperfect. bad management. cheap owners. selfish owners. people who don't hold up their end of things. carrot danglers. idiots who turn your timer off. or your oven on to 500 while your cheesecakes are in there cooling. chefs who forget the crucial ingredients that you need to do your job. arrogant dishwashers that want you to wash them before you give it to them. managers who spaz out and take the wrong dishes out to the wrong table, then need you to fix it fast and now your whole board of tickets is fucked. people who accidentally dump bain maries of hot maple syrup on your arms. still got the scars. or whack you upside the head with a frying pan , "accidentally". ooh let's not forget people who steal your stash of Cambros and side towels! the list goes on.

My point is that all employees need to vent that stuff. But owners get to do that too. and the pressure is on even harder. How about people who milk the clock on purpose? or when you find out they've been stealing from you even though you treat them like gold? and the hundreds of people who try to tell you how to run your business, when they don't even have a clue? blah blah blah that list goes on too... it's not about being 'wound up'. there are 50 million things to think about nonstop to make it through each day and succeed as a business. I have to use the phrase "pick your battles" because that is really all you can do, and put out one fire at a time.

I hope that at some point as I'm writing this blog, I will get to gush about all the money pouring in and where to spend it. About trips to Lake Maracaibo to pick out my cocoa beans. about having my own personal masseuse. now that's the fun list, the fantasy. right now, it's reality time.

Melissa McKinney

Chef/Owner Criollo Bakery

mel@criollobakery.com

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This thread is freaking me out for so many reasons. First, it's such an affirmative thing, taking your own destiny by the hand (or the balls, as you prefer) and making it happen the way you envision it.

On the other hand, I read some of this last night, dipping in here and there, before I went to bed (actually it was about 3 am and I was reading and contributing here and on a political forum and a horse forum and watching news all at once), and I went to bed in an absolute panic, which isn't exactly new for me these days, but I'd been hoping the election might change that. Instead, I'm fighting a desire to crawl in bed with a bottle of sambuca.

Your place looks fabulous. Congratulations. I'm wowed and inspired.

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Don't want to turn this into an Election thread, but gee it's good to know there's others who

feel just as hopeless and bummed about it as I do!

Port Townsend is LiberalLeftVille. I swear, on Wednesday the whole town was moping. Our

business was good since people were coming in to buy treats to try to cheer themselves up.

One of our customers came in to pick up her order, and she was sort of in a daze. She said

to us, "It's the Bible Belt and it's getting fatter.....that's gotta be the reason.....there must

be something in the Twinkies....."

That cracked us up......

but....sigh......I guess it's four more years of "nu-cu-lar" :wacko::wacko::wacko:

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I guess it's four more years of "nu-cu-lar" :wacko:  :wacko:  :wacko:

I was happy to read Mel's disgust and just had to give the nod back.

I loved Molly Ivins comments to the Berkeley School of Journalism last month. Noting Bush's visit with the Amish community during which time he noted his own faith, and that God spoke through him, Ivins commented, "I dunno, I would have thought God would at least know how to pronounce 'noo-clee-er.'" :laugh:

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Mel.....

I swear to God you're gonna make the big money by writing that book about all the dirt

we don't get to read about for free here on the 'gullet.

Your writing style is hilarious anyway and you've got a lot to say.

Put me on the list for the advance copy. Hardback.

We need a bakery version of "Kitchen Confidential" big time!

:laugh:

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You can tell me to go take a leap but I'm still going to offer my opinion. And again I'll remind you that I have indeed been there, done that so I'm not talking out of my a___.

How I'm reading your posts lately is: your too wound up. Yes all the things you've mentioned do happen. People do bitch, steal and lie. You do get solisited from every other business on the planet. ETC........crap happens.

Yes your working as hard as you possibly can.

But there is a BUT.....your looking at a bunch of trees and to reach your goal you have to block out all those trees and ONLY look at the forest. Don't waste one second of your time dwelling on this small stuff, it will trip you up, piss off you and everyone who has to be in the same room as you and turn you into a negative vibe! And don't tell me that you have to or that you only do it here online to blow off steam in private. People can read your thoughts with-out conveying one word. Stop the thoughts. Get positive and stay that way 24/7. When someone spits on you say thank-you and mean it cause indeed you learned something from that.

Be an executive chef 24/7. Don't act, think or look like a mom and pop bakery.........and INSIST your employees do the same! Your not going to grow out of being a mom and pop bakery if you act, think or let any employee act or think anything less then professionalism at all times. Treat every solicitor as a professional chef would. Take NOTHING personally, it all business.

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Sorry. It's the president's fault. I guess I'll go take some valium. Let me express this. for those who don't know me in person, I am an optimist. Always have been. I focus on the positive all the time. but some times there are negatives thrown in there too. So here's the good things. in case I am forgetting to put that out there.

I've had nothing but positive feedback from every person I've talked to when I am out front. It's awesome, to have regulars who are hooked after one visit! looking out on a busy weekend and realizing I know everyone out there, a whole neighborhood- it's a lot of fun to be a part of that. Overhearing people say "OH.MY.GOD" "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM" or "this is the best thing I've ever put in my mouth" makes me happy. Yesterday a woman whose party I catered, said everyone there was talking about the food and how tres fabu it all was. It means I am accomplishing my mission.and the other day a woman came in, bought a cookie. she left and started eating it right outside, took one bite, turned around and came back in and bought 6 more!

We have fun and laugh everyday. Got to!

I am extremely proud of everything we make and sell. So is the rest of the staff. I've got a great crew working their butts off.

We are getting very close to being where I need to be numbers wise, which I think is pretty darn good for a 4 1/2 month old. It ain't easy peeps. That is why I am working like a maniac.

I also love when people come into the bakery for the first time, and see the transformation from the old place, and are stunned. and if I give a kitchen tour, say how spotlessly clean it is. and that they are surprised by such a clean bakery. as far as projecting a Mom & Pop vibe, I do not think that is the case here. Most customers say, you are more like a restaurant than your average bakery. I guess that's why I go the extra mile for them. sure I can do custom work, sure you can try a sample first. sure I can do that in 15 minutes. Sure I can pipe "Vote George Bush" on your cupcakes. HA HA HA!!! I haven't lost my sense of humor... anyway I think that comes from a fine dining/ line cook past. willingness and flexibility to please the customer.

I don't go out front in a pristine, freshly pressed white chef coat. or with make-up on for that matter!! sometimes I'm covered in chocolate. flour. berry spatter. I am not going to pretend that way that everything is so peachy that I have time to apply lip gloss. and I am not going to pretend that running a business is easy, especially on my thread. I'm not going to sugar-coat it.

After the election results, my best friend called and said "I'm at the liquor store. I am stocking up because before you know it there will be another Prohibition!"

Let's hope freedom of speech hangs in there!

Melissa McKinney

Chef/Owner Criollo Bakery

mel@criollobakery.com

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I think we should leave the politics for other boards.

Sure, for the most part I'd agree. But it also seems to me that a thread like this, one that is surely about the food business, is at the same time a deeply personal blog, which would necessarily include the ways in which something as dramatic as profound political events affect the way one lives every day, and most especially the most significant political event in a four-year span, and so we might allow ourselves (and most especially the author of the thread) a little indulgence to ruminate a bit on how the profoundly political affects the way we get through what are already difficult days.

I'm not saying it's appropriate to drag every political thought we have into every thread or conversation on a food forum, but I think it may be important to consider the context. For example, to bring it up in the thread on releasing baked goods from pans, such commentary would probably be entirely beside the point, unless of course one might have been so distracted by the election that one was having particular difficulty in the moment getting the hang of performing the suggestions offered precisely because of the election results. I know, it's kind of a ridiculous example, but that's my point. But it seems to me that in a thread like this, a very personal thread about starting a business, working one's ass off 20 hours a day seven days a week while trying to stay sane, something as profoundly significant as one of the most difficult elections most of us has ever lived through might pertain to one's sense of emotional stability which might affect the way we approach our work, and maybe especially a new business.

I'm going through a similar thing. I've just been through a few months of hell trying to get a brick bread oven built, get a business off the ground (not to mention trying to take care of a barnful of horses and a husband and three dogs), and I gotta say, the election and the past year leading up to it has been hell to traverse. And the election just heightened my own sense of panic and sense of threat. It affects everything. As they say, the personal is political. And this is a very personal thread. Even though I agree with Mel's politics, I should note that I'd be equally okay if she were on the other side of my politics and blogging about how the results of the election affected her in a positive way. It's her blog. Still, it might be helpful to both Mel and others of us in similar situations to be able to commiserate a bit.

edited for screwy verb tense

Edited by devlin (log)
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THANK YOU!! Yes, it is my blog. You don't have to like or agree with what I say or type. Hell, my father is a Republican and my brother was in the Air Force. Talk about not agreeing! I love them regardless. Agree to disagree. We could start a whole new thread...just kidding.

2 comments heard this AM out front

"best baguette in Portland"

"better than Tartine in San Fransisco"

I don't know if that's true or not, but nice to hear nonetheless.

Melissa McKinney

Chef/Owner Criollo Bakery

mel@criollobakery.com

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mmmmmm....quinces. They are seemingly hard to find here in Edmonton, unfortunately. I like having one on my kitchen table just to perfume the air.

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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