• Cristian Vasile, or the "Man with the red beret" as he is known by the lovers of La Casa de Tortă Dulce products, delights us with his stories about the chosen path in an extremely competitive field.
Out of passion for baking, Cristian Vasile gives up a successful career in a large company, for the "red beret", the one that will become the symbol of the joy and dedication with which he serves his customers.
In a light and relaxed dialogue, Cristian Vasile, with the indispensable red beret, answers with kindness and humor the questions of the Arta Albă Editorial Board, revealing to us some of the attributes that make Casa de Turtă Dulce a special experience for its customers.
1. I have to admit that the story of the Sweet Cake House made me want to discover for our readers, directly from the source, the answer to the question: Who is the "Little Man with the Red Beret"?
"The little man with the red beret" is me, Cristian Vasile, during office hours! I turned 40 this year, I am an analyst - programmer by profession, but since my college years, when I worked a little, I realized that I wanted something else from life, a more active job that involved more socializing. So I turned to sales. I ended up selling tools, tools, then complex telecommunications solutions, ending up leading a team of sales people. But the moment came when I wanted something more, and that more was only possible if I tried something on my own. At some point, I made the decision, as they say in Romanian "to break the cat". So I left the corporation without a very clear idea of what I was going to do. The only thing one hundred percent certain was that I would do something on my own.
2. How hard, or easy, was the transition from the business suit to the "red beret"? What was the biggest challenge on the road to success?
I had allotted myself a year to make this transition. I had no family recipe, no one in my family had done anything on their own before, most of them were employed. But I trusted that what I will do I will do well.
After six months the idea had already come to me. I had started to set up my own laboratory, I was already attending confectionary courses to know, literally, what cakes are "eaten" with, not just to taste and enjoy them.
The challenges came gradually, the biggest being putting someone else first and not me. This aspect was already obvious to me, because working with clients in the past, I always put the client first. But, when you run a company, you also have to put your employees first. It's a challenge to see that even though sometimes resources are limited, they have to get paid and no matter what, payday is payday. And working with people is perhaps the most difficult part.
3. Why "La Casa de Turta Dulce"? Is there a story behind the name?
Everything that happens At Casa de Turta Dulce it's a story!
We have tried to make everything that happens here an experience for those who cross our threshold. I said: whoever passes by the confectionery, whoever visits it online should be attracted by what they see. The first impact is of course the visual one. Later, when they interact with us, either directly in the confectionery or even over the phone – because the smile is also transmitted over the phone – we tried to bring them joy. We achieve this through the way the cakes look, their names and their taste. You liked it and want to come back to this experience as soon as possible. This is actually La Casa de Turta Dulce.
Of course, the desire was to remember childhood, the stories with gingerbread houses, to make the client forget about all everyday worries and to transpose him years ago, to the period of childhood, when everything that was beautiful could be focus on a piece of gingerbread or a very tasty cake and a story.
4. We know that the location of a business in the field is extremely important. What were the criteria in choosing locations for La Casa de Turtă Dulce confectioneries?
The first criterion in choosing the location of the first confectionary was, of course, the ford, and the second criterion was the proximity to our laboratory, which was in the Old Center of Brașov. Starting from, so to speak, zero, we thought that maybe it was not the time to have that kind of pastry shop in the Old Center with a terrace.
We preferred that these steps we took, to take them gradually, to grow healthily, not to expand, to have I don't know how many confectioneries and then to "go from corner to corner". So I looked for a high traffic area. We chose Strada Lungă and so, in 2015, a few months after opening the laboratory, the first confectionery appeared.
Proximity to customers is very important
Later, we made the decision to approach another part of our customers, to come in their proximity, because there were a lot of customers who traveled all over the city to eat a very good cake. Then we said to cover these neighborhoods as well - Steagul, Noua, Răcădău - and we turned to Strada Carpatilor, and then we moved the confectionary to the Magnolia Commercial Center, because it was too much to have two confectioneries next to each other.
Proximity to customers is very important! That's why we made this decision, out of concern for customers and the desire to cover as large an area as possible.
Of course, parking is also very important, and this was a big asset when we chose the Magnolia Shopping Center, the ultimate goal being to make customers feel as good as possible and love to come to us.
5. Customers are already used to the funny names of your products. Who proposes the names of the products? Is it teamwork or do you choose them?
Almost everything we do is teamwork!
Many of the product names are also my creation, different names that I thought were funny. We have "Lemon White", a cake that was popularly called "Snow White". But how do you call a lemon cake that's yellow "Snow White"? Then I said that "Lemon White" might be an interesting name. Then we have the "Butterfly Cake". When I first made it, it had some flyers on it. But after tasting it I really felt butterflies in my stomach and then we had to give it such a name. We have "Geta Bioenergeta" - Geta is my mother - with lots of chocolate, walnut and rosehip jam. We have "Tits", "Rainbow on the palate", we have "General Joffre's cake", "Carrot farmer's cake", "Pavlova ballerina's cake". We also have "Bețe šugubetė", the cakes on a stick or cake pops.
We have tried that each of our products has a separate name. Our cozonac is called "Nucă cu cozonac". We also have "Homemade candy"... We tried, as I told you, to do everything like in a story, to do things differently from others, because we are also different. We tried to make the people we have special, and then the experience comes from everyone's involvement and ideas from these, let's say, "creets".
6. What is the Little Man in the Red Beret's favorite cookie?
I think that every day or moment I have a favorite cookie or cake. I like practically all of them. The cakes arrive in our confectionery only after we all taste them and, gradually, we also adapt them, based on the wishes of the customers, because they are the ones we address.
There are products about which we were informed that maybe they are too little sweet for the taste of the customers, and then we went to the recipe, so that we could sweeten them a little more. And that's because we try to limit the sugar part of the cookies as much as possible. Other times we were asked to intensify a certain flavor.
We ask for customer feedback to have great products
We try to have a very close relationship with customers and ask for feedback to really have some special products.
To get back to the question, I like them all! I very often eat the "3 in 1 Cake", a cake with three types of Belgian chocolate (we only use Belgian chocolate), dark chocolate cake, baked, flourless, milk chocolate mousse and whole cherries, white chocolate mousse. I also really like vanilla and we have a delicious eclair with boiled vanilla cream and a fine chocolate glaze. I also like "Home Chocolate" - from time to time I energize myself with a bar. This is a must in my backpack, whenever I go to the mountains or by bike. The "Daughter Cake" is very, very interesting and, of course, from time to time, I enjoy a "Tyțișoara", or even two.
7. We know that La Casa de Turtă Dulce products are made with natural ingredients of the best quality, including products for those looking for special desserts (gluten-free, vegan, with low sugar content).
How difficult is it for you, in the current economic context, to maintain the quality of the products?
Do you think you will be able to keep the current prices, or will it be necessary to adjust them to the realities of the commodity market?
One of the thoughts I set out with was to make some cakes that I could confidently offer to my children, some healthy cakes, especially after taking a pastry course, which allowed me to see, as so to speak, behind the counter, what actually happens and what ingredients are used. And I vowed to use only natural ingredients in our lab.
Natural ingredients for quality products
So all the cream we use is just milk cream. We do not use any gram of vegetable cream, we do not use hardener or other "magical" substances. We make all creams and mousses from scratch. We don't even use purees. We transform the fruit into the filling we need.
We use natural eggs, not tetrapack eggs, or do I know what ingenious variants are on the market. We only use Belgian chocolate, whether we're talking about a simple homemade cake or a cake that has chocolate in it. Absolutely all our products, from the top to the last cream, contain butter. We don't have a gram of margarine; we only use margarine for fasting products and then we notify our customers.
We also try to be close to those who find it difficult to find a product, due to ailments, various allergies, intolerances or diabetes. We have decided, even if it is difficult and expensive, not to refuse their orders, moreover, in collaboration with the Magic Help Association, which also built an oncology hospital in Bucharest, all children suffering from serious illnesses have from we, for their birthday, a free cake.
From the desire to bring joy to those around
It is very difficult to maintain the price... What we have shown since we entered the market is that we can offer a superior quality product at a price, most of the time, identical to that of other confectioneries. Indeed, this is reflected in what remains at the end of the month or year. However, one of the aspects that helped me move forward is that I gave joy to those around me. That is why it is very important to have a fair price for our products.
We still manage to maintain the prices, although you see what is happening: from fuels to raw materials, the price has gone crazy. We want to keep the prices as low as possible, because our desire is not to "dig" deep into the man's pocket, but to make him, even if we go through difficult times, be able to enjoy a quality cake when he feels the need.
8. What can you tell us about your team?
How do you choose the people to be part of the Little Red Beret story?
Regarding the team, an interesting thing is that most of the people who work at Casa de Tortă Dulce have not worked in this field before. Like me for that matter... I chose those people who have passion, want to do a good thing, be close to those around them and of course don't lack a smile. Very, very important is the attitude each of us has.
We have no minimum or maximum age limit, having colleagues from 18 to 70 years old, but they all have an enviable attitude, a story. They all do what they do with passion and to make those around them happy. Of course, all of them want to be part of a very cool team like the La Casa de Turtă Dulce team!
9. What are the greatest satisfactions that choosing this competitive field brings you?
It's a very competitive field, I even think sometimes when I have discussions with certain people who want to enter this field... I tell them that they need to think ten times before, because if they are passionate about making cakes, they can make very good cakes and they can work in a company that is not theirs, with less hassle and a very nice salary, or they can start on their own, but with certain consequences that I did not know, but that I saw and I felt them on my skin.
The satisfaction, however, comes from bringing joy to the faces of those who taste our products. The joy of people who probably haven't tasted something of quality for maybe years. Almost every day I meet people who enjoy one of our products, people who have never tasted our products before or people from Brasov who wonder: "Mom, where is this cake from?", which makes me happy, because it means that we haven't reached everyone yet and that our market will develop.
10. What future plans does the Little Man in the Red Beret have? What surprises does it have in store for us?
There are many plans. We really have some steps that we have already started, but we are not in a hurry, especially in this difficult context in which we find ourselves. Just as it was during the pandemic, there are things that no matter how prepared you are, or no matter how many connections you have, you cannot know in advance. My wish is that we all get over what is at our borders well. That's why we preferred to stay for a while, not to jump into investments, which, perhaps, will be difficult to turn into something profitable, in the situation where things take an inappropriate turn. But there are plans and we hope to surprise you in the future with what we do.
11. Who is the person who inspires you? Do you have a motto that guides you?
I have several mottos and have had people who have inspired me at different stages of life. I've learned that in most situations, you have to learn something from each person, either how to do something or the motivation behind doing that thing. Or there are situations where you learn how not to do or avoid certain things.
"Treat others as you would like to be treated."
A motto I hold dear is "Treat others as you would like to be treated." I tried to apply this motto in the relationship with clients, with employees, with partners and, I say that, for the most part, it worked for me.
With customers, we really try to bring them into an experience, to surprise them with what we do here, in the most pleasant way.
Regarding employees, we never had delays in paying salaries during the pandemic, no one was fired, even though the confectioneries were closed for more than two months. We all made it through.
In relation to our partners, during the pandemic, for example, we were happy that no one called us to ask for money - in those moments when money was no longer circulating between companies - because we had no debts with any of the partners.
What inspired me, and always told those around me, was Einstein's definition of insanity, that "If you do the same thing in the same way and expect different results, you are insane."
Audio version of the interview:
Interview conducted by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă
Read on White Art and: Herbal mixes and concentrates in baking, pastry and confectionery
