One of the things I love about my job is the variety it offers; but whether we’re hosting a tantalising culinary masterclass for visitors, discussing the latest industry developments with our suppliers or creating new mouth-watering Gü recipes, I always start my day the same way.
Paola Carlini
My alarm goes off at 6.30AM, and after hitting the snooze button a few times, I throw on some clothes and within 15 minutes I’m heading towards Battersea Park station to get to work.
By the time I arrive at the Gü test kitchen in Walthamstow at 8AM, I’m ready for breakfast and a coffee. Despite what my job might have you believe, I’ll always choose a savoury option like porridge, over sweet for breakfast, and use this time to scan through my emails and structure my day.
As a fully trained Chef, I love figuring out the winning ingredients behind the perfect recipe and spend a good part of my day coming up with new culinary creations and recipes. Fred and I try to incorporate a little bit of ourselves into every recipe. For instance, when leading on the development of our Strawberry and Raspberry Cheesecake, I incorporated a bit of my Venezuelan heritage, with the addition of hibiscus for the compote, which turned out to be the perfect, exotic combination – a year on, and it’s one of our best-sellers! Ideation, however, is just one part of the creative process – tasting is the other, which can vary between two and 20 products each day - it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it!
Apart from all the NPD projects we run, sometimes we are lucky enough to try our hands at other creations. These creations can vary from chocolate perfumes for Virgin Airlines (complete with edible bottle) to share with travellers at the airport as part of a ‘random act of Gü’, to a cake with a chocolate Elvis on top for our colleague’s maternity leave! This is one of the things I love most about working at Gü - the opportunity to do things ‘out of the ramekin’ and be creative, as I find this is when I learn the most.
By the time midday comes around, I’m ready for lunch. Because of all the heavenly treats we taste daily, I tend to go for lighter lunch options such as salads, sandwiches or soup. While this is helps me maintain a healthy balance, my job actually requires it of me too. One of the more technical things I’ve learnt working within the wonderful world of Gü is that when you’re full, your taste buds become less receptive to taste to discourage you from eating more. As someone who can be tasting up to twenty delicious puddings in a single day, I need my taste buds to be sharp!
My afternoons can consist of anything from preparing samples for despatch to retailers or suppliers to compiling reports for taste experiments and test recipes, that I, along with our Head Chef Fred Ponnavoy, have carried out that day.
Occasionally we’ll also host external events in our test kitchen, such as relationship building with our suppliers and retailers or masterclasses for our customers. For instance, following the launch of our new Gü Mousse Fusions earlier this year, we’ve been offering Mousse Masterclasses to guide our customers through how to achieve that perfect texture and flavour balance.
I’ll usually finish up around 5PM and head off on the hour journey home, which is when my mind will start to wander about what delicious dish I’ll be creating for dinner that evening. Turning those culinary thoughts into a reality when I arrive home, I then sit down to eat with my boyfriend and catch up on the day’s events. Following dinner, we curl up on the sofa and watch some TV, before heading to bed at around 11.30, ready to do it all again the following day.
Paola Carlini is a Product Development Chef in the New Product Development team at Gü. The new Gü Mousse Fusions are available at Tesco, Waitrose and independent retailers, with an RRP of £1.80 for 2.