The Next Chapter
You know, when you experience another country, whether it be for the first time or for the fifth, it can really change you. It can change your outlook on life when you see how another culture lives and operates. I’ve always been particularly fond of Italy for a number of reasons, ranging from the breathtaking geography to the incredible selections available for unbelievably cheap prices at grocery stores. I will admit I am a little depressed coming back to the United States after my recent trip to Italy. Someday, I think I really would prefer to live there. When I walk into a grocery store and can get the freshest, most amazing ingredients for so cheap, it makes me really dislike American grocery stores. Not only are our crops so increasingly modified, but they’re expensive. Just to further prove my point, my mom who is severely allergic to gluten can eat bread and pasta in Italy with no problems whatsoever. Since I have been to Italy a number of times, all around the entire country even, I can speak from experience when I say they really have us beat with food. There’s nothing I would change about the amazing food I got to eat during my week there recently. Here, if I want the same thing, I have to pay out the ass because it’s all imported and heavily taxed, and then the price is tripled. I experienced the same thing in the south of France as well. Who knows, maybe later in life I will be an Italian citizen. I wouldn’t be mad at that.
Ok, enough of my ranting about food, the title of this is the next chapter because this part of my life really feels like that. I got engaged in Italy, and to enter this next part of life is really exciting and not as scary as I thought it would be, purely because of the confidence and love I have for my partner. On top of that amazing news, I am also writing a second cookbook, this one being much better than my first. While I’m proud to have a book, I was disappointed because it didn’t feel like “my book”. I looked at it and felt it was amateur and just wrong. Granted, the recipes in it are good, and I’m proud of them, but this next book is my chance to really make it shine, and I will. Everything about it will be better and more professional.
I feel like I’ve had a combination of great and not so great things happen, but really, it’s just me focusing on the couple of things I don’t like, such as recent cake clients ghosting me and me not getting money I was planning on having for the next month. I don’t understand why a client would agree to a price and a payment policy, mine being half of your total is due at ordering, the other half is due the day before you get it. Us independent bakers and cake artists have to have these policies because it is the only way to protect ourselves financially. Most cake artists require full payment upfront. I try to be lenient and give the option of half or all up front because I know custom cakes are expensive and money is tight for a lot of people. But, to order a cake and not pay for it is just rude. The reason we have these payment policies is because we can’t spend an entire day of our schedules making one cake for a client to have them flake and not pay us. The upfront payment at least protects us and pays us for our time, since we have to pay ourselves. I will admit that this situation happened to me for the first time last week with two separate clients, and it bothered me just because I’m on my own now. I don’t have a biweekly paycheck to rely on. I literally have to make my own money, and if I’m short one month, I have to find a way to sell more so I’m covered. Owning a business is expensive; there are so many costs with bills, materials, ingredients, licenses and so forth that really add up, so you can see why a couple of clients flaking on me caused a bit of stress. This is a volatile industry and it’s the type of situation where you have to be prepared for anything. Clients will flake on you. Offers will go away. It happens. This is when you remind yourself of the good things going on. For me, it’s being engaged, working on a second book, getting to teach cake classes monthly now, my wonderful ongoing work with The Fresh Market, my farmers market booths, and the cake clients I currently have. There are so many wonderful things, and I am one to harp on the negative. I will let one bad thing distract me from all the good. It’s something I’ve done for a long time and have had trouble fixing, because I am so type A and just need everything to be in place for me to be totally happy.
Oh well, things happen. What I can say is that I feel like the rest of this year is going to be spectacular. Insanely busy, but spectacular. I’m a lucky guy to have what I have, and I never forget that.
