The baker smiled brightly and said,
“Alright, friends~! Before we make bread, let’s wash our hands clean, shall we?”
The baker’s words made sense. Making bread requires using your hands, so washing them beforehand was a no-brainer. Food hygiene is everything, after all. If someone told me to eat bread made with hands that hadn’t been washed, I’d probably scrunch up my face and refuse. Human hands are crawling with bacteria, they say.
“It’s cold!”
I washed my hands thoroughly at the sink installed in the classroom. I must’ve lathered soap three times. My hands were now in a completely sterile state. Jiyu and Yumi, who were watching me wash my hands from behind, looked shocked and said,
“Hana, why are you washing your hands so much?”
“Your hands are gonna bleed!”
I dried my hands with a towel and replied,
“Because hygiene is the life of food…”
Even I thought I sounded cool saying that. It was as if I’d been a baker with decades of experience. Of course, that was probably just my imagination. After the kids finished washing their hands and returned to their seats, the baker kindly explained the process. A large screen was set up, and they slowly and carefully taught us how to make bread. It wasn’t some fancy or overly complicated bread—it was pizza bread, something even beginners could easily make.
“First, before we start making bread, let’s cover the tables with plastic wrap~”
The baker and the teacher went around covering the tables with transparent plastic wrap. It reminded me of how restaurants cover their tables to keep them clean. It made sense since making bread could get messy with flour and various ingredients. Plus, you had to sprinkle flour on the table to prevent the dough from sticking, so the plastic wrap was necessary.
Since there weren’t many kids in the class, it didn’t take long. My third-grade Class 1 had fewer than 20 kids in total. Compared to when I was in school, the number had more than halved. Back then, there were 40 kids in one class. Maybe that’s why it sometimes felt a bit unreal with so few people.
“Alright, let’s start making bread!”
Since the baker had already given us a rough idea of how to make bread, there wasn’t much confusion. And if we didn’t know something, we could just ask. It wasn’t like they’d get mad or anything. I sprinkled flour lightly over the plastic wrap. I’d heard that you had to do this to prevent the dough from sticking to the wrap. I didn’t know the exact science behind it, but apparently, sprinkling flour stops the dough from sticking. Since it was advice from a pro, I obediently sprinkled flour everywhere.
Jiyu and Yumi also started sprinkling flour around their areas. It looked like snow was falling.
“Here we go!”
The baker had already prepared the dough and went around placing containers of dough on the tables. They placed a large container of dough in front of us and said,
“Friends, use this dough to make pizza bread!”
“Okay!”
Once the baker left, we took out the dough and placed it in the center of the table.
“Wow, it’s huge!”
“Can we even finish all of this?”
Jiyu and Yumi couldn’t help but marvel at the dough on the table. The dough was about the size of our heads. The other ingredients were already prepared, so we started tearing off pieces of dough to make the bread. To make pizza bread, we had to wrap the dough around the sausages the teacher had brought. It’s a bit crude to say, but it looked like we were wrapping the sausages in dough like, well, you know.
“It’s so good, so good!”
Jiyu couldn’t resist and secretly snatched a sausage to eat. Yumi frowned and scolded her.
“Jiyu! You can’t eat the sausages meant for the pizza bread!”
“Heeeng…”
Jiyu was crushed by Yumi’s sharp words. I smiled as I watched them. There was something healing about seeing them bicker. I also tore off some dough and wrapped it around a sausage. Cutting the dough with scissors created the sausage border on the pizza bread. It was surprisingly fun, and before I knew it, I was completely focused.
————————————————————-
“Hmm…”
Kim Sehee was examining a bottle of wine made by Starlight Food. It was a sample brought in before the wine hit the market. The employees predicted that this wine, made from high-quality grapes, would easily surpass even famous French wines.
Got it, but if you don’t jump over it, that would be weird.
Kim Sehee carefully poured the wine into the wine glass. Listening to the employees, her heart seemed to race. Of course, she wouldn’t believe that Starlight Food could surpass French wine until she actually tasted it. It was too early to say that a wine aged for thousands of years could be surpassed by something that hadn’t even been around for a few months.
Starting wine production from scratch would have taken a lot of time, but acquiring a wine factory saved a significant amount of that time. Of course, the current factory could handle the demand, but Kim Sehee was already looking to the future and constructing additional wine factories.
If the demand for Starlight Wine were to skyrocket, it would inevitably lead to a situation where more factories would be needed. She was just getting a head start on that.
“The color of the wine is very pretty.”
Even without expert knowledge about wine, Kim Sehee could tell that the color of the wine she was pouring was beautiful. Just like you don’t need to be taught to recognize a beautiful person, the color of this wine made even Kim Sehee, who didn’t know much about wine, realize its beauty.
“The taste will exceed your expectations.”
The employee who brought the wine looked at Kim Sehee and spoke. Kim Sehee responded with a smile. Then, she slowly lifted the wine glass, imagining herself as a consumer.
Since she didn’t have much knowledge about wine, Kim Sehee could fully immerse herself in the consumer’s perspective. Most people who drink wine don’t have much knowledge about it. Unless you’re a sommelier or someone with extensive wine knowledge, how much could the average person really know about wine?
Just being able to distinguish between red wine, white wine, and sparkling wine based on the food you’re eating already puts you ahead of the general public in terms of wine knowledge.
Kim Sehee took a light sip of the wine. A fragrant aroma filled her mouth. The intense flavor of grapes stimulated her taste buds. Kim Sehee’s eyes widened. Once again, plants had not disappointed her. Even though it was a budget-friendly wine, if it tasted this good, it could redefine the wine market.
Of course, the brand’s influence was weak, so it wouldn’t sell easily abroad. The reputation built over thousands of years was a massive barrier that couldn’t be easily overcome. A wine like Starlight Wine, which hadn’t even been around for a year, couldn’t surpass famous brands. The taste was clearly superior, but there’s a reason why luxury brands are luxury brands.
Some consumers are willing to pay dozens of times the production cost just for the name of a luxury brand.
Still, even a dog eats half of its meal at home, and Kim Sehee was confident that this wine could become the best-selling wine in Korea.
“Other wines aren’t in production yet, right?”
“No… they’re still aging, so nothing has been officially released yet.”
Kim Sehee planned to sell two types of wine: budget-friendly and premium. The budget-friendly wine was aimed at hitting the market with minimal aging. The grapes used had an extremely shortened aging time, as if they were begging to be consumed quickly.
The premium wine, on the other hand, would be aged for a long time like other wines. If the budget-friendly wine, aged only a little, tasted this good, she couldn’t even imagine how delicious the premium wine would be. It might just slap the taste of highly-rated foreign wines right in the face.
“Next week is something to look forward to.”
Since Starlight Food already had an established distribution network, they could simply slot the wine into that network for sales. The wine was mainly planned to be sold in convenience stores. The price would be set accordingly, initially sold at a low price. After sufficiently addicting consumers to Starlight Wine, they could then raise the price, and consumers would have no choice but to follow.
Kim Sehee felt a slight buzz coming on and smiled contentedly.
