Everyone Should Experience Sales, It Comes in Handy in Life

If they have no bread, let them eat cake – said French queen Marie Antoinette to the poor French. The queen met a tragic end, but the statement has remained memorable to this day. In fact, it is believed that Marie Antoinette never actually said this, yet the controversial statement has survived centuries and become widely known around the world. It is mostly mentioned in jest and not taken literally, but exceptions always exist.

For instance, this sentence resonated with Ivana Čuljak long ago and would not let her rest. It captivated her so much that she decided to name her pastry shop after it years before she even opened it. Her love for history directed her life and business path towards the pastries she decided to truly feed the hungry people of Zagreb. And not just them, as she intends to build a recognizable brand, open more locations across Croatia, and step into the international market.

Cake with Seven Layers

However, by 2019, when the pastry shop “Let Them Eat Cake” was established, Čuljak had spent years traveling, interning, gathering knowledge, and gaining experience in various kitchens around the world, from Mexico to New Zealand. Prior to that, she studied for three years at Vern’ University (then still a polytechnic) and graduated, working as a student assistant to the former sales director Silvana Smiljanić at Lider. Although she was successful in her profession, it did not interest her much.

– I have always been drawn to cooking. I inherited this love from my parents, great gourmets, who were entrepreneurs and owned a construction company. After my studies, I realized that my passion is the kitchen, that I want to improve and gain knowledge to one day be a chef/pastry chef. Of course, in the beginning, not everything was perfect; I think it shocked my parents. My father saw me in a nice office, working nine to five, while my mother often said that working in the kitchen is like bread with seven layers.

Anyway, I possess a virtue or a flaw, however you want to take it, so in this case, I listened to my heart and myself and decided to embark on a new path. The university helped me a lot because I studied entrepreneurship economics. I had prior knowledge for starting a company, which later proved very useful as an entrepreneur. I worked at Lider for a few months in 2009 or 2010; it was a wonderful experience. Since I worked in sales, I had to call companies and sell subscriptions and conferences, which was really difficult for me at the time. Everyone should experience sales; it really comes in handy later in life. When someone calls me today wanting to sell me something, I remember that I used to be that person, so even though I often don’t buy anything, I at least listen and thank them – recalls Čuljak.

Doughnuts are Number One

The pastry shop offers fresh cakes every day, specialty coffee from Cogita, teas, including matcha, and sandwiches. Čuljak does not offer juices because she wants people to come for coffee and cake or coffee and a sandwich, but also because the screaming logos of other brands do not fit into the decor of the space. She says that she has been collecting cups and plates during her travels for years and that she paid attention to every detail in the decor because they reflect her and her style.

Currently, she operates in a space of 80 square meters and has a small storage area, but the space has already become too small just a few months after moving in 2023 to Kamaufova Street from Gin Garden. This year and next, she will work on expanding production, adding more seating, and expects to receive a permit for a terrace so that wines can be included in the offer alongside cakes.

– Now is the season for cinnamon rolls, but doughnuts are also in high demand, which may be our number one among pastries. Of course, we also bake cakes and pastries to order for various occasions, from weddings to other events. We have started baking homemade bread, specifically focaccia, so we offer sandwiches that our regular customers requested. We introduced them after two years, once we settled into our primary business, and croissants and other savory snacks will follow.

We do not want to rush the offer; we are slowly expanding it so as not to lose quality. Croatians really love chocolate and pistachio; I think the best-selling desserts contain those ingredients, but, in fact, there are no rules. Everything is in demand, from cookies resembling pistachio choux, tiramisu, baklava with pistachios and walnuts, cinnamon rolls, frangipane tarts to Spanish and South American crumbly cookies called alfajores. We are regularly fully booked on weekends and a month in advance, especially when cakes for celebrations are ordered – notes Čuljak.

During the doughnut season, her workday starts at four in the morning and ends at six in the evening; it is similar in December when the production of Christmas pastries begins. The doughnut season lasts a month, but since they prepare each doughnut themselves, as well as all the creams and fillings, the production cannot be shortened. They always prepare especially for this season in the pastry shop, but no matter how hard they try to make their job easier and produce more, there are never enough of those pastries in the end.

Family Support

Ivana Čuljak finds inspiration in travel, people, and the seasons, but of course, she also follows trends in the world of pastry. Every new cake, she emphasizes, is created as a small experiment: sometimes it succeeds immediately, sometimes it takes her longer to achieve what she envisioned. Today, she has her own pastry team, making it easier to reach the final idea; currently, there are five pastry chefs and several students in her team.

– I strive for my employees to be well-paid, happy, and satisfied. My main pastry chef has been with me for five years, which speaks volumes about our connection and collegial relationships. As the company grows, so do the salaries of the employees because I want them to feel that growth in their earnings – says Čuljak.

In addition to opening a small loan for starting the company, she invested her personal savings, which she managed to accumulate by working in the kitchen on a ship for several seasons. She also utilized a €10,000 grant for self-employment, investing it in her first professional oven and small inventory. She took her first loan, and then a second, through HAMAG BICRO.

– I still consider it the best financing option. The loan application process was easy, and the officials were friendly, so I recommend HAMAG BICRO to every future entrepreneur. My company is not a family business, although I have great support from my family, especially my younger brother, who is a great help in procurement. Of course, there is also my mother, who has not worked in this profession but always has the best advice for her child, not just as a mother but also as an entrepreneur.

Family support is truly important, and fortunately, I had it. My boyfriend also helps. He likes to say that he is employed there, although he actually volunteers in my pastry shop. He has management skills because he comes from a large company and advises me on procurement, cost reduction, team management, and communication with customers – describes Čuljak.

Free School

She believes that New Zealand has shaped her the most on her path to becoming a pastry chef because working in probably one of the best pastry shops in Auckland gave her invaluable experience. She also worked in Mexico and Colombia, where she organized ‘Noche de Croata’, preparing Croatian dinners at the restaurant Juana la Loca, and then in Ecuador.

– These were nice restaurants, but I also worked in some where I literally worked on the street. All of this brought me invaluable experience and knowledge. In most restaurants, I worked for free or received a small amount, just enough to have something. I viewed everything as a free school and claimed that I should pay them for the knowledge I gained from all those people and restaurants.

Many of the pastries I learned to prepare in New Zealand are offered in my pastry shop, only I reduced the amount of sugar for our market because New Zealanders and Australians, like Americans, use much more sugar in desserts than we do. We offer many pastries whose main ingredient is the well-known South American spread dulce de leche, which is sweetened milk, so South American clients have discovered their desserts in Zagreb.

Every dessert in our pastry shop has a story or is connected to a specific person or country. For example, I have clients from Brazil who love our desserts with passion fruit and say it reminds them of home, clients from Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico who come for their dose of chocolate cake and alfajores, as well as those from Greece and Israel, but of course, also from Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am happiest when a sweet treat takes them back to their homeland – claims Čuljak.

Pastries for Rimac’s Bugatti

She describes herself as a traditionally raised child who grew up on pies, which is probably why the first technique she learned was rolling dough, but later she enriched it with others, mostly French. However, she loves the famous Argentine dessert chocolate cake and Pavlova, a dessert claimed by New Zealanders and Australians, created in the early 20th century in honor of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who visited both countries. She cannot overlook tiramisu or French pastries either.

Among special orders, she recalls one from her friend and colleague Mate Rimac, with whom she shared a student desk. When Rimac took over Bugatti in 2021, she was to prepare sweet gift packages for employees in France and Germany, more than a thousand of them. The idea was to combine Croatian and French cookies, so she prepared our gingerbread and French salted caramel. Before completing the order, she worked thirty hours without sleep because she was in the pastry shop with only one other pastry chef. She miscalculated the duration of the production. Although everything went smoothly, she now assesses the time needed to complete orders much more carefully.

With all her travels and pastry adventures, Čuljak also found time to participate in ‘MasterChef Croatia’. She applied for the competition in 2012 because it was an opportunity to try something she had always dreamed of; she won fourth place.

– I considered ‘MasterChef’ a springboard into the world of gastronomy, but also a school. I applied in the first season, 2011, but I didn’t get in, so I took a year off to learn and practice. At that time, job offers in the profession were coming my way, but I was persistent, saying that I was going to ‘MasterChef’ and that I would still be cooking afterward. In the end, that’s how it was. With my persistence, I ended up in that show, but it was only there that I realized that I knew nothing and that I needed to start over, which I did afterward, learning step by step – she emphasizes.

Just One More Paper

This year, she expects revenue growth as turnover and sales are higher than last year, and she is currently working on expanding the team. Revenues in 2024 reached €277,775, which was 70.03% more than in 2023, but a net loss of €4,254 was recorded. According to her, the relocation to a larger space, the expansion of part of the production, and the increase in the number of employees influenced the revenues, while the loss was due to investing all earnings into additional equipment and machines.

– I started production in July 2020, while the corona crisis was still ongoing. I survived that part and began to grow little by little. In these few years, we have become more efficient, negotiating better procurement conditions and trying not to raise prices, although that is sometimes, unfortunately, necessary.

The biggest threat to our business is the rise in raw material and energy prices, but for some, it is the lack of labor and pastry chefs. Finding craftsmen for the arrangement and renovation of the space is certainly a challenge. Therefore, if the works are planned for three months, it is better to count on the fact that they will, in the best case, be completed in six months – states Čuljak, who is most depressed in business when she cannot influence the course of events, which is why she always has to arm herself with patience.

The hardest and most stressful, but ultimately the best, move in her business so far was, she says, the relocation to larger business premises in 2023. Before that, the pastry shop “Let Them Eat Cake” had been a small production within another hospitality facility since 2020. And she certainly perceives bureaucracy as a major obstacle. It is always about too much paperwork and too little flexibility, and she cannot count how many times she has heard the phrase ‘One paper is missing’ in the six years of the pastry shop’s existence.