The Sweet Sides of Bitter
by
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The first five years as a child of divorced parents, the author remembers different beds in different homes. When she starts school, a new step mother provides strict discipline and order in her life. WWII efforts called on every eligible male into mandatory service including her father, the only person she loves. Good fortune returns him home safely nine years later.
During those years, war rages, bombs are dropped, destroying neighborhoods and food and clothing are rationed. Fear of religious and political reprisals and not a whisper of complaints were allowed. At age nine, the author is taught to gather supplemental nutrition from the woods. Witnessing her step mother’s skills of preparing meals from meager food supplies instilled her first dreams of making magic in the kitchen.
In the years after the war, the author’s education continues. In the midst of the rubble of the metropolis Berlin, she completes a formal apprenticeship in the food service. Her life is drastically altered when she accepts a loving hand of marriage which leads her on a journey to America, Texas. Humorous highlights describe the years of new impressions and of motherhood. While raising five children, she starts a cottage industry that leads to some zany experiences. Then a black cloud of tragedy hurls her once happy family unit into an individual survival mode.
The author enters the formal world of White Coats and into the professional Association of Chefs. The reader gets an inside view of stress and fatigue which causes comedy as well as tragedy behind the commercial kitchen doors. The experiences and problem solving ideas of different professional chefs will interest any food enthusiast. The struggle of a female kitchen boss trying to gain the respect of an all male staff never daunts her determination. The love for appealing to different taste buds, teaching the young and taking delight in difficult tasks are some of the sweet sides of life.
A sense of good humor and the desire to smell the proverbial roses along the way makes this a very human story. Collegial friends, who supported the author after an ocular disease rendered her legally blind at the age of fifty, renew her will to carry on. The foundation of knowledge, a sense of adventure and the wisdom to share it, all causes the author to make inspiring decisions.
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About the Book
The story of a young girl growing up in the war torn German metropolis of Berlin is factually correct. Her strict and disciplined upbringing and the mortal fear of nightly bombings causes her to be nervous and shy. She soon finds solace in nature while she learns to harvest the bounty of the nearby forest for nutrition that calms the ever present gnawing of her hungry stomach.
The story makes reference to some historical events post war Europe and the struggle for an apprentice position in food education. With a sense of adventure and a tongue and cheek humor the reader joins her on a journey to America. Participate in the wide eyed wonders of getting to know different cultures, different foods and a new language. The detour into motherhood, while balancing a cottage industry, makes for some zany moments. Finally, tragedy and personal challenges are touching events, but they open the field of experiences in the world of food professionals. The mental and physical stress, as well as the ambitious rush of adrenalin so typical in the service industry, often causes hilarious and at times serious happenings behind the kitchen doors. Sharing in the experiences and the knowledge of different food professionals will interest any food enthusiast.
The different segments of the book’s chapters are preceded by poetic stanzas which describe the part of her life following. Traveling with food in mind and an original formula for cold raised yeast pastry, ends the story of a German immigrant who adopted Texas as her home, while discovering the sweet sides of bitter.
About the Author
Born and educated in Berlin, Germany as Christa Doberschuetz, she obtained an early interest in the food industry by environmental exposure to her parent’s occupation. Her early life was filled with daily uncertainties in her home life as well as prevalent war conditions. Conversations of historic events overheard as a child made sense in her home later life.
She completed her formal training after the war ended and was awarded her Journeymanship papers from the department of labor in Berlin, Germany. She met and married R.N. Flores, of the U.S. Army, while stationed in Germany in 1953 and followed her husband to Edinburg, Texas. While raising five children there, Chef Krista continued her studies and also actively participated in several community organizations. In 1963, she ventured into her own catering and baking business and in 1969 added a research and test kitchen where she conducted gourmet classes for adults. Krista also lectured at the Pan American University of Edinburg during five summer sessions. From 1973 to1978, she owned and operated, Krista’s German Restaurant and Pastry Shop, then went on as a Pastry Chef for a country club in McAllen, Texas until 1980. Becoming a widow at that time, she sought solace in managing a bistro in McAllen until 1983. Moving to Houston for a year as a personal chef, she was drawn back to McAllen to accept a position as Chef-Manager in a rustic restaurant and bar. Then as a self employed Pastry Chef at Large, she contracted out her services to many hotels and fine restaurants for special event cakes and pastries and accepted seasonal assignments. She also taught night classes at a vocational institute in Harlingen, Texas.
In 1990, she remarried to a Mr. E.G. Holmes. During that same year she was struck with an ocular disease which left her legally blind. She learned to make use of modern technology and after an adjustment period, accepted a contract as Special Events Coordinator at the Community Hotel and Conference Center in her town. After two years, Krista also added a summer position as the Executive Chef at a prominent golf resort lodge in Wisconsin to which she returned for five seasons. She then settled fulltime into her position at the local Community Hotel and Conference Center where she remained for the next thirteen years. Finding herself widowed again, she decided to record the highlights of her busy life and devote more of her time to leisure and to family. She still enjoys directing an occasional special event and is frequently asked to consult and help plan events. She is still involved in local and state and conferences of her profession.
She has been a member of different civic organizations as well as the Pan American Round Table, the Texas P.T.A., the Hidalgo Historical Museum Guild, the Alliance Francaise and the Retail Bakers Association. She is an honorary, retired member of the Texas Chef’s Association (TCA) and the American Culinary Federation (ACF) which includes the Les Amies de Escoffier Society. She is also an accredited retired certified executive pastry chef (CEPC).