1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 522 The Shining Manager
In three more months, the restaurant will have been open for a year.

Both Ronan and Luo Tianhai were very satisfied with everything about the restaurant – satisfied with the strategies they had devised, satisfied with the staff, and satisfied with their achievements.

But if you absolutely have to ask what regrets you have during these nine months of running the restaurant, or what you didn't handle well in the first restaurant and need to make up for in the second, then it must be the decision to mix the cooking area and the dessert area together.

In traditional French restaurants, the cooking area and the dessert area are always separated. French chefs follow the golden rule of separating hot and cold foods, isolating aromas, and alternating time, also because desserts are very important in French cuisine and come in a wide variety.

Chinese cuisine doesn't rely heavily on desserts. While high-end restaurants do separate the two categories, many small and medium-sized restaurants mix them together in their kitchens.

When we opened last year, desserts were just a functional addition, and we didn't have high expectations for them or think about making a name for ourselves with desserts, so we didn't set up a separate preparation area.

As Ronan became a pastry artist and shone brightly in Provence, and as he and Lia won the first Provence Pastry Competition in Aix-en-Provence, the importance of desserts in the kitchen had become almost the same as that of the hot kitchen.

This can be most clearly seen from the number of people.

When it opened last year, there were only 2 pastry chefs, but now there are as many as 6 chefs in charge of making pastries.

The kitchen couldn't accommodate all the staff working in both functions. The back door connected to a small warehouse, which was where Ronan first practiced making desserts. Now it had become a temporary dessert kitchen, and the goods that were originally stored here were moved to the empty second and third floors.

The small warehouse is not very big, and it is already a bit crowded for 6 people to work inside.

However, the actual number of people present in this place is usually greater than 6, even if they are not inside, they will be at the entrance.

Several months ago, pastry chefs were the most sought-after position in the restaurant. Feng Zhen told Luo Nan more than once that xxx had secretly bought professional dessert-making tools and was planning to get certified.

At one point, the restaurant staff's biggest concern was when they would add more staff to the dessert team. Everyone wanted to learn how to make desserts from the hardworking and excellent Leah.

Although two more pastry chef positions have been added recently, it is still not enough to meet the demand, and some people still come to 'take classes on their own' whenever they have free time.

Last month, in order to practice her knife skills for a competition, Leah didn't have much energy to take care of these girls. Recently, she has been taking the initiative to explain the key points while working so that they can understand.

"The key to the success or failure of this lotus flower pastry lies in the crust. If the crust is made well, it will easily bloom; if it's not, the 'shape' won't come out." Leah muttered as she worked. "My experience is to do a 'glass' test. When you think the dough is about right, pinch off a piece, flatten it, stretch it, and hold it up in a bright place. If it's translucent but doesn't have any holes, it's ready. If not, keep kneading."

A woman standing outside the door clicked her tongue in amazement and said:
"How do you have so many little 'tricks'? Last week I used the method for melting butter that I learned from you to make a small cake, and it was so delicious, just like the ones you buy outside."

Leah replied dismissively:

"You'll get the hang of it by doing it more. Go back and practice more, and you'll definitely be able to learn from your experience."

"Okay, I'll try it when I get back today."

Another woman asked Leah in a casual tone:

"Did Ronan teach you these things?"

A voice came from outside the door, interrupting the women's dessert class:

"How could I possibly teach Leah? Leah is old enough to be my teacher. I'll have to try this 'glass' test when I get back."

When Ronan arrived, Leah waved excitedly to him:
"You've come at the right time. The lava chocolate I made before always felt a bit lacking compared to your original. This time, I increased the temperature by three degrees during the preheating. Try it and see how it tastes."

Ronan didn't go in; he stopped at the door and said:

"Okay, but let's try it somewhere else."

He smiled and said to the women at the door:

"get out of class is over, get out of class is over. Come back next class. I need to take your teacher, Leah, with me to talk to you about something."

Second floor of the restaurant.

Luo Tianhai and Feng Zhen's new house had already been renovated, and the furniture and appliances had been purchased.

However, since this place has become a temporary warehouse, it still looks a bit far from being habitable.

Ronan and Leah sat on opposite sides of the table, with a plate of molten chocolate in the middle.

"When will the shops on the shopping street be completed? With so much merchandise here, will your parents still be able to move here next month?" Leah asked worriedly as Ronan sampled the chocolates. "It shouldn't affect your wedding with Zoe, right? If it really doesn't work out, you can stay together for a few more months."

The union of a couple signifies the birth of a new family unit.

French young people typically don't like living with their parents after marriage and will try to find ways to live independently.

Looking at the room full of goods, Leah couldn't help but feel a little anxious.

“It will be completed ahead of schedule, but it won’t be until August,” Ronan reassured Leah. “But don’t worry, there are vacant warehouses at Cotillard’s place. I’ll rent one for two months to tide me over.”

Leah's expression softened:
"That's good. These past few months have indeed been a bit chaotic. Things will be fine once the new restaurants on the commercial street open."

This chaos refers not only to the goods that have nowhere to go, but also to the crowded dessert-making area.

Luo Tianhai has already spoken, and the kitchen of the new restaurant on the commercial street will definitely separate the two functions, and he promised to give Liya a large kitchen that is both clean and bright.

Since the topic had come up, Leah pressed on, asking:

"When the new restaurant opens, should I continue working here or go to the new store? Giving those people training now is also to prepare for that. When the time comes, I'll oversee one store, and Nicola will oversee another. If we don't have enough manpower, you can pick a few people from these employees with some basic skills to fill in. We should be able to get through this smoothly."

Nicola was one of the first to work with Leah on desserts, and after nearly a year, she has become capable of independently managing the dessert section of a restaurant. Apart from those desserts that require meticulous craftsmanship, she has no problem making the others.

Leah continued:
“Nicola’s knife skills aren’t great, so in the future, only the one I’m at will serve ‘artist’ desserts,’ while the other will only offer basic desserts. Do you think that’s okay?”

Ronan put down his dessert spoon and wiped the chocolate from his lips:

What if you're not in either of those shops?

Leah paused for several seconds, then shook her head and said:
"Don't give me any fancy positions. I like to spend my days in the kitchen, surrounded by these utensils and flour. I only know how to make desserts; I'm not good at anything else."

Ronan smiled and waved his hand, speaking in a gentler tone:
“You’ve misunderstood. I’m not asking you to do something else. You’ve finally found a career you love, why would I ask you to do something else? I just have an idea about the third shop on the commercial street.”

Ronan's friends and family all knew that Blanco had forced him to buy three shops, and they had all offered suggestions on what to do with the third shop.

It was easy for Leah to understand.

Ronan laid out his entire vision for the third store, including what it would sell, why it was arranged that way, and his expectations for the store.

He mentioned Lourmarin's bread crisis, talked about their unique advantages as a dessert bakery, and didn't hide the problem of declining average customer spending at the restaurant.

“Don’t think that the lower average order value is a problem. It’s actually an opportunity, a chance for both Chinese food and desserts to develop better,” Ronan said realistically. “And you should be seen by more people. I hope you can be the manager of this dessert and bakery.”

The role of manager has existed in France since the Middle Ages, but it suddenly became 'hot' in the late 1980s.

Last month, Artur and several other restaurant owners from Provence came to dinner. During the meal, they talked about how some local restaurants had recently hired famous chefs from Paris or other places and packaged them as 'head chefs' to give back to the restaurants.

Ronan's reason for making this decision is quite simple.

One reason is that Lia has already established herself in the world of Provençal desserts.

Secondly, even the farmers who supply the tomatoes can have their names and be remembered by diners, so the crucial contributors to the dessert should not be buried in the restaurant.

Moreover, Leah is not afraid to step into the spotlight now. The week she participated in the dessert competition in X made her used to being watched, and she is fully capable of taking on this role.

The third reason is that the presence of a female manager will certainly attract more support from the Provence Women's Foundation in the future.

Ronan's numerous experiences in Provence have proven to him that professional tasks should be left to professionals. Now that Ronan wants to open a pastry and bakery, Philia is the perfect assistant.

Leah was extremely surprised to hear this news.

However, as Ronan said, now is indeed a good time to open a dessert and bakery in Lourmaran, at this time of year, so that there is enough room for both the restaurant and dessert businesses to grow.

Let's put aside the issue of whether or not someone is in charge; that's secondary.

Her first thought was that if they were to open a dessert and bakery, the difficulties they would face would be far greater than those of opening a restaurant.

“If we were to open two restaurants, the original six pastry chefs plus one or two more could support two pastry kitchens. But where are we going to find so many people to open such a large-scale pastry and bakery?” Leah knew about Lourmaran’s manpower shortage because Vieri was working hard every day to find more market staff. “We need at least a dozen people, or even more, and most of them need to have a foundation in pastry cooking.”

Ronan sighed deeply:

"There are solutions using manpower, it's just a bit troublesome."

Ronan recounted the aid arrangements that the Provence Women's Foundation had just mentioned to Leah, and after summarizing the situation, he added his own stance:

"Although this matter is a bit time-consuming and laborious, it is indeed a solution. People we train ourselves are always easier to use than those who have learned their skills from who-knows-where. Moreover, during these months of training, we can also observe their character. We certainly won't need 70 people; picking out a dozen or so satisfactory ones from here is more than enough."

Leah's face was just as pale as Ronan's had been.
"But that means you'd have to go to Avignon two days a week. That's too much of a hassle."

Avignon and Lourmarin are at opposite ends of the Vaucluse department, and the journey there and back involves long stretches of mountain roads that take two or three hours. Ronan will most likely have to stay overnight in Avignon during the two days of training, but he and Zoe are getting married next month.

Are newlyweds destined to separate?
Ronan gave Leah a warm, gentle smile, hoping to reassure her:
"But this period of time will only last for two months and will soon be over. Moreover, the foundation has promised to give the lecturers 'generous' compensation, Leah. You don't need to worry about the training or whether the two restaurants can function without you. You only need to think about yourself—do you want to be the manager of this dessert and bakery?"

The incident happened so suddenly that Leah couldn't immediately give Ronan an answer.

She said she needed to go back and think about it before making a decision.

She spent the whole afternoon thinking about this problem, but the more she thought about it, the more confused she became. So she decided to go home and have a family meeting to ask her husband and two children for their opinions.

However, it was difficult to get everyone's time together. The whole family was very busy, and when Leah returned home, she only saw Vieri.

Vieri would call his classmate every day to persuade him to take the job at the market, but he caught a glimpse of his mother sitting down next to him, and she had been there for several minutes.

"Mom, aren't you going to rest?" Vieri put down the phone temporarily.

Vieri is an adult now, a fact that the whole family acknowledges.

Although she was a little uncomfortable, Claire told her son about Ronan's suggestion that afternoon, as well as her concerns, and asked for his opinion.

“You, Zoe, and Louis are all moving in the right direction, and of course I want to make progress too,” Leah said with difficulty. “But manpower is a huge problem, and I don’t want Ronan to be running around every week for me.”

Vieri said seriously:
“Mom, Ronan wants to know your true thoughts, not other people’s. He always tells me this when I’m hesitant. I know that’s the kind of person he is.”

Seeing his mother remain silent, Vieri continued to persuade her:

"Also, you don't need to worry about manpower issues causing trouble for Ronan. When I call my classmates, I'll recommend the dessert shop and new restaurant jobs. Many of my classmates don't want to go to the market, but they might not refuse these two jobs."

“That’s right!” Vieri continued, picking up the phone. “I’ll go ask the people I rejected before right now. Mom, don’t worry, do what you want to do. I’ll take care of the personnel issues!”

Two of his classmates were indeed interested in working at a restaurant and a dessert and bakery. In order to persuade them to join, Vieri left home and went to his classmates' houses for a face-to-face meeting.

Just as Leah was about to go back to her bedroom to rest, the door was opened, and Zoe returned.

"You're back, darling. How was work today?" Leah returned to the living room.

Zoe stretched wearily:

"I haven't participated in any activities in a long time, and I've talked too much, so I'm a bit tired."

"Okay," Leah said, not wanting to disturb her daughter's rest. "Go and rest now. I'll go to the kitchen and see what fruit we have, and I'll get you some to eat."

Girls are usually more observant and sensitive, and Zoe immediately noticed that her mother's emotions were not quite right. Instead of rushing back to the bedroom, Zoe leaned against the kitchen doorway and asked:

"Mom, how's work going lately?"

Lia took a quick look at the shell:

"Smoothly, of course it's smooth, dear."

Zoe walked up behind her mother:
"Mom, is something wrong?"

Leah's daughter had already noticed something amiss, so she recounted what had happened that day:
"Although Vieri can rally some classmates, it still can't solve all the problems. Ronan still has to go to Avignon. Besides, I'm just a pastry chef, I can't be the manager, darling, I can't be the manager."

Zoe hugged her mother tightly and said gently:
“Mom, how could you not be a good manager? Do you need me to take out the newspaper of the dessert competition? Let me show you how you are described there. You have already proven yourself, and this is what you do best. If Ronan goes to Avignon on a business trip, I will go with him. You don’t need to worry about this at all.”

Suddenly, exhausted Zoe, as if injected with adrenaline, neatly tied her hair up at the back of her head:
"A dessert and bakery that sells sweets, bread, Chinese pastries, and chocolates—that's so interesting! I'm going to look at pattern books for inspiration right now. Mom, I'm going to make your shop the most distinctive dessert and bakery in Provence, bar none."

It's about 9 o'clock in the evening.

After returning from a social engagement, slightly tipsy, Louis washed up and lay down on the bed.

"What important art event is Zoe going to attend recently? I see her bedroom light is still on."

“She’s helping me design the equipment.” Leah turned over and told Louis again about Ronan’s suggestion that afternoon—to make her the manager.

Louis was stunned for several seconds after hearing this, then suddenly burst into tears and threw himself into Leah's arms, stammering incoherently:

"I've known for a long time that you're the best pastry chef in Provence! You're my pride. My wife is amazing! In the future, I'm going to invite all my clients to your pastry shop to discuss business and introduce them to you. Look, that sparkling person is my wife! My wife! She's the best pastry chef in Provence."

Louis's emotional outburst was partly due to the effects of alcohol, but his intense love for Leah was also real recently.

Since Leah demonstrated her talent and achievements in her career, Louis has become her 'fanboy,' and his eyes sparkle with love whenever he sees his wife.

Louis cried his heart out, which was somewhat comical, and Claire's eyes also welled up with tears. She then hugged him even tighter.

She's so happy, so incredibly happy.

She has so many family members who love her.

The next morning, Ronan finished his trail run with Huhu and ran into Leah, who had been waiting for him at his doorstep.

"Why are you here?" Ronan looked up at the position of the sun.

At this time, Luo Tianhai was still making breakfast in the kitchen.

"You woke up early and couldn't fall back asleep." Leah went over and patted Hu Hu's head as a greeting.

"Haven't eaten yet?" Ronan pointed to the house. "Let's eat together."

"No, I'll leave right after I say that to make breakfast for Louis," Leah said with a smile. "I've made up my mind."

Ronan raised an eyebrow, surprised to get an answer so quickly.

“I want to be the manager of this dessert and bakery, and becoming a famous pastry chef is my dream.” After saying this, Leah closed her eyes with a sense of relief. When she opened her eyes again, she was completely different. “But I have to go to Avignon for training on my own. You, Zoe, Vieri, and Louis are my strongest support. I know you will definitely help me achieve my dream, but I also have to work hard on my own.”

Before Ronan could say anything, Leah radiated confidence in the sunlight:
“I am more suited to training than you. First, I already have many ‘apprentices’ who can quickly get into this role. Second, if I teach these women, they will be more motivated to complete the course because I am the best example.”

(End of this chapter)