My trip to Maastricht last weekend was fun for more than one reasons. I want to take you through an extraordinary culinary experience that I bumped into just by chance. Here is my story.
It was raining heavy on Saturday morning. It looked like a late evening when it was just 11am. We were driving through a small village 'Eijsden' near Maastricht. The street was lined by restaurants full of people enjoying their brunch. Bright and pink little cafe caught our eye and we decided to have a warm drink.. a perfect excuse on a rainy morning.
't Gateauke is a little patisserie and a cafe run by a mother-daughter duo. The interiors of the cafe were cozy and bright with floral designs, lovely lamps, beautiful chairs and most important, delicious pastries, cakes, cupcakes and chocolates. It was impossible to resist the temptation to enter this cafe and once in, there is no way one could leave without trying some of their delicacies. The decor of the cafe personifies the warm and friendly ladies who are creating this culinary extravaganza through their work. We settled on a table by the window, busy absorbing the atmosphere and flipping through the menu card. I wanted to order it all and die of over-indulgence of sweets and cakes.. that would be a great death, I thought. Should I order a chocolate cupcake or the muffin? How do I make a choice when everything is so alluring?
We placed our order. I could not stop myself from talking to the ladies, Yvonne and Barbara. They were more than willing to answer my questions. This is how 't Gateauke came into existence.
'My mother was teaching women how to bake cakes and pastries at our home for many years. We realized that with increasing number of women who wanted to learn, our home kitchen was not spacious enough to conduct these courses. Why not start a small patisserie? We started thinking about it and things got moving'. The daughter informed us while bringing our orders.
'We are new. We started this cafe in April this year. It all began in March and as luck would have it, this place became available for renting. It is indeed a perfect location and within a month we opened our doors to the customers. A friend of ours helped us redecorate the old chairs in appropriate fabric. We paid an extra attention on the interiors, the kind of glassware and cutlery we wanted to have. It was a bit expensive as an initial cost but the feel that it created was priceless. Another friend of ours worked on our logo, business cards and also the paintings to go alone the theme of cakes. All these paintings, she did it herself'.
While we were busy listening to the daughter, the mother was instructing a group of about 10-12 women. They were decorating beautiful cakes. It was such a perfect environment. Women's world, infused with love, passion for cooking and an eye for beauty. We savored every bite of our cakes and I took photographs just to keep a memory of this experience. We also discussed a possibility of these two ladies travelling to India to conduct the workshops in baking. It was so easy to feel connected with them. I asked them, if I could write about their patisserie in my blog and they both graciously agreed.
I know the limitations of my words to do justice to their work. You have to try it yourself to believe it but for those who cant travel to Maastrict in near future, please have a look at their website. www.gateauke.nl. You will get the glimpses of how it is in reality through this website. I have been reading about inspired actions and these two ladies were living examples of the same. When we really want to create something with all our passion, things do fall in place and the dreams do come true. I have read similar stories about people who have made it big in their life but still all those personalities felt distant, alien in a way. But Barbara and Yvonne and their story inspired me immensely. Thank you ladies, you indeed made by day last Saturday and gave me food for thought. I am happy that I could write about you through this blog.
I wish them both a successful profession and I am sure they will continue to inspire many people through their art and their personalities. I cant wait to visit you again just for another bout of happiness through food and I must say, I have decided to learn baking myself. Thanks to 't Gateauke!!!
PS. It is a pity that I donot know how to place pictures in a nicer way within the text of this blog. I wish I could do something about it. Any suggestions how can I place pictures in different sections of this blog post?
