by Julie Caplin
Mina raised an eyebrow. For a woman who didn’t like people in her kitchen, she suddenly seemed rather accommodating. ‘Sounds like you have a full itinerary planned for him.’
Amelie’s eyes twinkled. ‘I do. His wife can’t decide whether she’s irritated that he’s not going skiing with their group, or proud that he’s so useful. I intend to take advantage of him without shame.’
‘And will that include lots of praise and encouragement?’ asked Mina, suddenly understanding the other woman’s strategy.
‘He just needs to remember that he has qualities, and get some of his self-esteem back. His wife is very quick to point out his flaws, and he is very quick to bend like a branch under the weight of them.’ Amelie suddenly took a few paces imitating Dave’s shambling gate, her shoulders bowed and her demeanour defeated before straightening with a fox-like sharpness to her face. ‘I think there’s hope there.’
‘And I think you shouldn’t meddle,’ said Johannes, his mouth pursing.
Amelie simply peered at him as if she were looking over a pair of glasses, and sniffed before turning back to the large piece of cheese she was chopping. Mina looked at it again.
‘That’s the longest piece of cheese I’ve ever seen.’
‘A quarter of a metre long,’ said Amelie. ‘I bought it from a local dairy where they make half-metre rounds of cheese. Here, try some,’ She handed over a chunk from the pile she was cutting. ‘Emmental is a metre long, that’s why you always buy it in squares, a slice would be half a metre long.’
Mina munched thoughtfully on the cheese. It looked as if Amelie had everything under control for the day. She agreed with Johannes that she would come straight over after breakfast had been tidied away and she’d had coffee with Amelie, which would give her time in the afternoon to go for a cross-country ski with Luke for an hour or two. It looked like her day was panning out perfectly.
Breakfast, unlike the other leisurely meals in the chalet, reminded Mina of being at a petrol station. Sitting at a table by the window, she watched with amusement. People basically served themselves as quickly as possible, ate, and left. As people reached across each other for another croissant, a slice of rustic bread, or a seeded roll, there were a few exchanges about the weather forecast – excellent today and for the following day – and an occasional nod and acknowledgement of where people were headed, as they helped themselves to coffee, with the occasional reference to the previous evening’s discussions about the best cross-country trails, which had been discussed exhaustively over dinner.
Mina watched Sarah bustling about in an all-in-one pink ski-suit, amused to see that she was just as bossy with her two friends as she was with Dave. They were part of a group of seven, who were very keen cross-country skiers; thankfully the other three were staying elsewhere as Mina had decided they were rather boring about it. They held court over their breakfast in loud voices, declaring with overbearing certainty and a certain amount of dogmatic confidence which were the best trails.
‘Morning,’ murmured Luke in a husky voice that immediately brought her nerve endings to attention as he slid into the chair next to her with a plate piled with bread, ham, cheese, and a couple of croissants.
In a black roll-neck and black ski pants, he once again looked like a broad-shouldered, slim-hipped action hero, ready to ski off into the breach, and for a minute she wished she was going out with him right now.
‘Morning.’ She smiled back at him, and for a minute just drank in his handsome loveliness in a soppy, star-struck sort of way before she pulled herself together. It was considerable consolation that he looked just as dazed. ‘I’ve sorted everything out, so if you’re still available this afternoon we can go out then. Amelie’s drafted Dave in for the morning, so I’m going to Johannes on a chocolate mission.’ She sat back feeling rather pleased with herself.
‘You have been busy.’
‘The early bird catches the worm and all that. I didn’t like to disturb you.’ Although she had heard him moving about next door.
‘I was up early, but I did some work on my new commission, made a start anyway. Like you, I didn’t want to waste a minute, and it’s such a gorgeous morning I can’t bear to be inside. I’m going to ski over to Oberwald with Claudia and Frank. I’ll be back about one-thirty, and I’ll just need to check in with work, and then we can go out this afternoon when you’re done with Johannes, if that’s still OK with you.’
‘Perfect.’ She rubbed her hands together. ‘I do like it when a plan comes together.’
As Luke ploughed through his huge breakfast they were joined by Claudia and Frank, and Mina was happy to leave Luke as they began to discuss this morning’s trip.
They were very impressed that Johannes was prepared to show her his chocolate production.
‘You’re very honoured,’ said Claudia, her mouth turning down with mock disappointment. ‘I’ve asked him many times.’
‘I’m worried he’ll change his mind.’
‘He’s not going to change his mind,’ said Luke. ‘Now he’s said, “yes” you have the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate palace.’
Mina grinned. ‘I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination you could compare Johannes with Willy Wonka. If the Grinch made chocolate however…’
Johannes was surprisingly businesslike when she turned up at his house at eleven o’clock later that day, and insisted on giving her a hairnet, a white coat, blue plastic overshoes, and an apron to match his own, before leading her down into his basement. She realised within a matter of minutes that he took his chocolate business very seriously.
‘This used to be the barn,’ explained Johannes as they came to the bottom of the stairs. ‘This place belonged to my grandfather’s brother, he lived here all his life, and his grandfather before him. In those days, the cattle were kept here in the winter, and then in the spring they would go up to the alpine meadows for the whole summer and stay there until late autumn.’
‘So your great-uncle,’ Mina worked out that’s who it would have been, ‘must have known Amelie’s grandparents.’
‘Yes, this was a very tight-knit community. Amelie and I played together as children for a couple of summers. We used to swim at the lake, Geschinersee.’
‘I didn’t realised you’d known each other for that long.’
His eyes suddenly twinkled. ‘We were seven or eight then. I don’t think that counts as knowing each other.’
‘Do people change so much?’
‘Huh. Not in some ways, I realise. Amelie was always rescuing small creatures back then. Although when I met her in my late twenties, she had changed a lot. Quite the party girl. Like every man, I was completely entranced by her. She was like a comet bursting through the sky at a hundred miles an hour. And like a pompous prig, I blew it. Expected to cut her wings and have her dance to my tune. I had a job in Zurich. I gave her an ultimatum. Come with me or…’
Mina stared. ‘I had no idea.’ Amelie had never given any indication that there’d been anything between her and Johannes.
‘Why would you? It clearly didn’t mean that much to Amelie, whereas…’ He paused and leaned forward to open the door at the foot of the stairs. ‘I made the biggest mistake of my life. I never met another woman who could match her.’
He suddenly gave Mina a shrewd look.
With guarded eyes she looked back, but he didn’t say anything more.
‘Now I’m trying to make up for lost time. I worry she doesn’t look after herself properly, yes. She needs more help in that place. It’s too much for one person, but she’s so stubborn.’ That, Mina suspected, was the kettle calling the pot black, and he seemed to do quite a bit of helping whether Amelie wanted it or not.
‘I think she wants to prove she can do it.’
‘Hmm,’ growled Johannes leading Mina into a bright, airy space with whitewashed stone walls. Surprised, she blinked at the blue-white brightness of the room lit by stark LED lights.
‘It looked ver
y different in here when I started. Of course, I’ve done a lot of work to insulate it now. There are still plenty of barns in the villages throughout this valley who still farm the old way.’ His craggy face broke into a smile. ‘And a good job, too. It’s their milk that makes all the difference, although every damn cheese producer and artisan chocolate maker claims the same.’
Having heard this in detail at La Maison de Gruyère, Mina ginned back at him. ‘And what do you think?’
‘Actually, old cynic that I am, there might be something in it. Why shouldn’t the grasses, wild flowers, and herbs the cows eat create character in their milk? It’s certainly a good marketing angle.’
The room was far more modern than she’d expected, and Mina was impressed with the amount of machinery he had, completely dousing her expectation that it would look homespun and small-scale. This had more in common with a craft beer micro-brewery, with its gleaming stainless steel vats and shiny silver pipes running overhead from one to another. She looked at him, surprise in her eyes.
‘This is why I don’t let people come in here very often. One, hygiene is very important, and two—’ his eyes suddenly twinkled ‘—I prefer to let them imagine it’s all magic, pure alchemy, rather than the hard, scientific work that needs to be put in to make the alchemy happen. And while there is a lot of science involved, there’s also a certain amount of magic.’
Mina recognised in the sudden upbeat lift of his voice, the passion for his subject. ‘Have you ever seen a raw cacao bean? Damn ugly things. They remind me of some sightless sea creature that lives at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.’
Mina didn’t think anything lived at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, but she got the idea, having seen the display at the factory tour the day before. Chocolate definitely came from humble origins.
‘To get from that to this—’ he held up a cellophane-wrapped bar of chocolate that he produced from his pocket ‘—is pretty incredible.’
Once Johannes started talking, she found it fascinating, and the two of them chatted happily as equals. He was clearly a little flattered by her interest, but also equally impressed by her knowledge. Although she hadn’t made chocolate herself, she knew enough about food production processes to ask plenty of in-depth questions.
Chocolate was complex stuff, she learned, and making it like this was very time-consuming. The main process that was responsible for the texture and consistency of the chocolate, and which made the difference between high-quality and low-quality chocolate, was the conching process.
Johannes patted the top of stainless steel piece of kit, which was making a regular hum with a rhythmic whirring noise.
‘Take a look inside.’ He lifted the lid.
‘Oh, the smell. That’s delicious.’ She peered into the large container at the smooth liquid chocolate churning away inside in elegant, sinuous movements.
‘This is conching. It’s a kneading and smoothing process that ensures all the particles in chocolate face the same way. Imagine the nap of a fabric or a piece of velvet. If you stroke it the wrong way, you rough up the surface or the pile.’ He paused and gave her a very stern look. ‘I think relationships are like that. If you find someone where the particles all face the same way, where you don’t rub each other the wrong way, it’s a good match. Understand.’
She nodded, surprised but also intrigued and a little bit charmed at likening finding love to a type of food processing. It seemed rather appropriate.
‘Finding that without having to go through the conching process – which I see as negotiation and compromise, which I had to do with my first wife – is a rare thing.’ He said the latter with considerable warmth and stared at her intently.
There was silence in the room apart from the whirring and churning of the machine next to him, which seemed to emphasise his meaning.
Mina was too surprised by his directness to say anything at first, but then she said. ‘Are you talking about Luke?’
‘Ah, you do understand, then. I’ve seen the two of you. I know you think I’m a grumpy old unromantic, but I see more than you think. Bernhardt’s keen, you know, but that’s practicality over anything else. You’re a good-looking girl, know how to behave in company, so he’s decided you might be a suitable candidate – and also there’s a little bit of competition there, so he’s prepared to throw his hat into the ring.’
Mina burst out laughing because he’d summed it up perfectly.
‘Whereas Luke…’ He tilted his head. ‘Most people never find that.’
‘Did Amelie tell you what happened before I came here?’
‘No, she wouldn’t betray your confidence, but I can see that you’re trying to find your direction.’
‘Exactly, and I’m not sure Luke is part of that direction. Not at the moment.’
‘Don’t make the mistake of waiting for the right moment. If I were you, I’d seize it, everything else can work around you.’
Mina shook her head. ‘I’m not sure it’s that simple. And I’m going home in four days’ time.’
‘That doesn’t have to be the end, does it? There are planes and trains. Jobs in Switzerland. Jobs in England. Jobs all over the world.’
She suddenly gave him a brilliant smile. ‘You’re right.’ Plenty of people survived long-distance relationships.
She looked down at the moving mass, slightly beguiled by the silken chestnut river swirling in the giant mixer, savouring the rich, sweet smell rising up. ‘So what do you do with the chocolate once it’s made?’
He stared at her for a moment, his deep set eyes narrowing with thought, and then he laughed, a deep, throaty belly laugh which stopped just short of him slapping his knee. ‘I sell it, of course… When I was made redundant, put out to pasture like a good Swiss cow, I sulked for a little while. Then I looked for another marketing job, and started work for a small packaging company, specialising in confectionery. They produced very high-class designs, works of art, and I enjoyed the work, but I realised that a lot of the products didn’t actually live up to the packaging. Felt it was a missed opportunity, and I had a redundancy cheque burning a hole in my pocket. I invested my redundancy money and here I am.’
‘In secret.’
‘It’s not such a secret, but I don’t want to be disturbed every five minutes by people. I’m not sure I really like them.’
Mina pulled a sceptical face. ‘I’m not sure you’re really as curmudgeonly as you like to make out.’
‘And how do you come by that conclusion?’
‘You come for cake most days.’
‘I like cake.’
She raised an eyebrow.
‘And Amelie chooses her guests with care,’ he added grudgingly. ‘Although I’m not sure she’s ever going to knock young Kristian into shape. I think that one was born under the klutz star.’
Mina giggled, remembering that he’d been quite kind to the young man in question.
‘Now I suppose you’d like to try some,’ said Johannes with a mock weary sigh.
‘Well, if you don’t mind. Let’s see if it lives up to the hype.’
‘Come upstairs, I have a little tasting room, although it’s more trouble than it’s worth and I could do with the space for storage.’ He scowled. ‘Sometimes these dumb fool executives want to visit…’ He paused and the scowl deepened. ‘…The site and they want to talk to me. Amelie suggested I set it up. I can ill afford the space or the time. But she was right, I’ve sold far more chocolate that way. I really need a retail outlet but I don’t have the time or the resources to run one.’
He led the way back upstairs and in the hallway turned left into a tiny showroom. Mina hid a grimace. The room was dark and the shelves crammed with boxes of chocolate, none of which displayed the pretty packaging to its best effect. Johannes yanked out a box and handed her a bar.
‘This is made with candied rose petals and the beans are from Sur de Lago in Venezuela. I made them for a hotel chain that specialises in unique properties, they wan
ted something unique to them. Try some.’
She unwrapped the matt cream wrapper, embossed with pale pink roses – the design really was stunning, it sold itself – and bit into the tiny block. Immediately she sighed with pure pleasure at the subtle rose flavour offset by the smooth dark richness of the chocolate. ‘Oh, that is lovely.’
‘Should be, took a lot of work that one. But they can’t get enough of it. They want me to come up with something for their after-dinner coffee. I’m thinking a single estate in the Esmeraldas in Ecuador with a very light peppermint oil.
‘And here…’ He pulled out an attractive orange box decorated with maple leaves and handed her a cellophane bag. ‘An American company wanted some high-end chocolate for Halloween. Crazy, but that’s a big sale time for them.’ He ripped open another bag and thrust it at her. ‘Smell this. Flavoured with gingerbread spices. And now taste.’
At the first bite, the hint of ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon immediately reminded her of autumn evenings kicking through russet leaves, the bright orange of pumpkins, and the sweet, dark intensity of home-baked parkin. ‘Oh that’s wonderful. If I were cooking with it, it would make a lovely sauce on ginger ice cream.’
‘Hmph,’ muttered Johannes as if insulted that she would use it for cooking.
As Mina moved around the cramped room, she couldn’t help feeling dismayed that the wonderful selection of chocolate, flavoured with everything from roasted coconut, candied rose petals, and cranberries through to chillies and passion fruit hadn’t been given the chance to shine.
‘I had no idea of the scale of this. It’s amazing. You must be really proud.’ It really was quite some achievement, and it sounded as if he was far more successful than he was taking credit for, but she felt he could do so much more.
Johannes shrugged modestly. ‘It’s taken a while to get this point. And I do have some help. I send the finished items to two women in Brig who I employ, and they do all the packaging, hand-tie the bows, and put on the flowers and stickers. They pretty it up. Then there it goes to the distributor. I’m expanding quickly. Like I said I need a retail outlet. I’m going to have find premises and get an apprentice. Staff.’ His lip curled at the very idea.