Men at Work #1 - Andreas the Pastry Chef

Having had our 3 or 4 coldest days of the winter last week we have now, suddenly, been plunged headlong into balmy spring with clear blue skies and glorious sunshine. Even the inside of my house is beginning to warm up a bit. I may actually have to consider removing one of the duvets from my bed and contemplate sleeping without my socks on. Anyway, I know that some of you are still experiencing cold, wet weather so I didn't want to rub it in any more (than I already have!) by posting a shot including the azure sky or bright sun, hence the indoor shot.

This is the first of what, I hope, will become an occasional series showing various people in Symi going about their work. Future instalments may include Yiannis the tinsmith, who's reflected nose has already accidently featured in this Blip of his workshop, a postman or 2 and a carpenter. If I'm really lucky maybe I can grab a shot of the that Mayor, mayoring (or whatever it's called).

Back to the picture. Andreas is the pastry chef working at 'Nikolas', Symi's only traditional Zaharaplasteio (patisserie). Here they sell pastries, biscuits and gateaux, all made on the premises by Andreas. They also serve coffee, beer and soft drinks and during the summer months make and sell ice-cream.

About the man himself I know very little except that he is originally from Patras, in Western Greece and that he does make exceedingly good cakes. Oh no, that's Mr Kipling. Andreas makes exceedingly good pastries, biscuits and ice-cream - far more versatile than Mr Kipling and the cakes are probably a lot fresher!

When I set out to write this I assumed I knew much more about Andreas than this as I worked at 'Nikolas' last winter, washing up, making and serving coffee and occasionally assisting with the scoffing making of all the goodies. We didn't work in complete silence for 6 months, so what an earth did we talk about?

Just in case you were wondering, when I took this shot, he was making chocolate sauce ready to pour over the profiteroles that can just be seen at the bottom left of the picture.