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ELENA – THE GROWING UP YEARS

The Culinary Art

The day following Elena’s tenth birthday...Maria’s paternal grandmother started a very special and intensive programme whereby Elena was inducted into a hands-on course in the art of culinary skills. The food academy was more than a decade in existence and was a former Jewish merchant’s house. It stood in the centre of Bucharest amongst similar old homes and its architecture was modelled and constructed in the design of “Little Paris.” The head of the school was a lady by the name of Felicia Curtica and Elena’s immediate mentor was a lady named Annamaria Iasco. The food menus compiled in the curriculum were made up of appetising dishes from the different areas of Romania. In essence, it portrayed and showcased the appealing influences of the Balkans.

For young Elena the course was to become a magical journey which included the following practical training programme. The initiation from ten years to twelve years of age commenced with an entry-level junior cookery syllabus. It was a very rudimentary preliminary programme with a potential to escalate and promote girls who offered that extra bit in terms of passion and dedicated skill.Elena’s training paid-off. Coupled with her personal talents she was soon able to, quite easily, make the following items:-

 Goat cheese and olive homemade bread

 Cranberry homemade pate

 Caramelised onion and cumin homemade bread

 Seasonal salad stuffed focaccia

 Rolls with main ingredient turkey – stuffing included red cabbage salad with apples and quince and prunes

 Apple nests stuffed with salty caramel.

By the time Elena was fourteen years of age, she had learnt to prepare more advanced items. They included the following specialities:-

 Cozonac: A type of bread prepared with either nuts or raisin. It was usually made during festive occasions.

 Placinte pies: Its ingredients included cream and sweet cheese.

 Pasca: Similar to placinte, a traditional Easter pie topped with cream, sweet cheese and raisin.

 Papanasi: Donuts prepared with cottage cheese and topped with chocolate, fruit or even sour cream.

Elena graduated from the entry-level junior cookery level and, from the age of fourteen to sixteen, she matured into a seamless young professional chef in the advanced level and, as a consequence, she could safely source, clean and cut and manage to prepare a variety of Romanian and East European dishes, such as the following:-

Sarmale: A Romanian dish prepared with rice, mince and cabbage and served with mamaglia. Eaten during the festive season.

Salata Boeuf: The ingredients included chicken, carrots, potatoes, parsnip, mustard, salt and pepper. The final dish was served with a dash of mayonnaise and the presentation was decorated with diced carrots and olives. It was an auspicious occasion dish and was usually had during New Year’s Eve, Easter and Christmas.

Chiftelute: It was a meatball dish, made out of chicken or pork. Other ingredients included potatoes and onions, garlic, carrots and eggs.

Mici: The ingredients included pork meatballs, beef and mutton. The dish was usually served with chips and mustard sauce.

Ciolan afumat: A Romanian dish made out of pork. The knuckles were smoked and served with beans and onions preferably red onions.

Moldavian Stew: Its ingredients consisted of polenta and cheese, eggs, sausages and pork. Suggested serving was usually with onions.

Drob de miel: Its ingredients were lamb offal and the dish was presented as a cake.

Racitura de porc: Its ingredients consisted of pork trotters, gelatin from the animal feet and rind. A much-liked winter season jelly-dish.

Ciorba: It was a Romanian sour soup. The ingredient make up was one of beef, pork or chicken prepared with vegetables and cream.

The Dressmaking Programme

Elena did not have a break when she was at finishing school. Between the ages of seventeen and eighteen Maria’s wily paternal grandmother never relented. Therefore, the best use of time after the main academic schooling was put to very good use, in that, she wanted Elena to become a woman who accepted any and all challenges and won!

Her great-grandmother then enrolled Elena at a highly-acclaimed garment design and dressmaking private academy. The academy was called the Ebenbutt Clothes Designer. There were staggered classes, such as the mainstream morning classes, afternoon classes and even special evening classes for those who were passionate in becoming qualified and skilful artisans. In those early days, even the capital city of Bucharest fell far short of boasting a sewing scene. Female garment patterns were scarce. The early years of the 20^thcentury saw some of the changes in technological advancements, in that, the working class could only purchase sewing machines which were affordable. This then lead to an increase in the demand for sewing patterns.

However, thanks to her wealthy great-grandmother, Elena had a head-start in comparison to the less fortunate women and girls of her time...the private academy had it all.The resources of sewing machines, the dress-patterns, cotton, knitting wool, related technical gadgets and above all, the mentorship teachers who were acclaimed top-class professionals! In essence it was a dream, come true for Elena.

The art of sewing for Elena commenced with a very basic syllabus in order to grasp the bare essentials. In other words, skills test for Elena, as a novice, included the following:-

Essential tools of the Sewing-Trade

Elena was shown and given the very basic tools in her induction phase of sewing. The items were the following:-

 Measuring tape,

 Needles,

 Cotton or thread,

 Sewing shears, and

 Material as in cloth,

 Rotary cutters (in the more advanced phase),

 Cutting mat,

 Seam rippers,

 Special marking pens and chalk,

 Tailor’s iron,

 Seam roll and tailor’s ham, and

 A leg-pedal sewing machine.

Under the auspices of her mentor coupled with the training programme the application and critical use of the above items, whilst being a bit scared in the very beginning(certainly not naïve), Elena became one of the fastest learners in her group. A large part of the accolades and thanks was attributable to a mature and experienced lady named Cecelia Dalca...she was the instrument of success for trainee Elena. The latter months of her mentorship was turning out to be an incredibly momentous one. Her mentor and tutor was amazed at the incredible pace within which Elena grasped not only the basics, but also the skill and dexterity that she displayed in terms of sketching, designing, cutting and sewing.

On the basis of her fast-paced theoretical and practical knowledge and prowess, Elena was escalated and promoted to the more advanced syllabus of the training course. She, together with five other equally talented girls was awarded the top-student certificate of merit by the end of the course. Her maternal great-grandmother was truly excited given the very successful completion of the overall dress-making programmes...Elena became a young prodigyand was about to make an indelible mark as a professional in the emerging commercial scene.

Practice makes Perfect

The best advice Elena received from her mentor on the last day at the academy was this: Simply design, sketch, cut and sew as much as possible until your full potential shall be accomplished. Not only that, it also included the gaining of self-confidence and all the peripheral issues that would make her a much sought-after icon dressmaker of her time in a much needed market which was hitherto non-existent. She had to create that much needed niche-market by constantly practising and going over the finer points and aspects that was her grounding at the training academy such as the following:-

 Understanding the components and how to use the sewing machine and what to do should there be a technical problem,

 In terms of correctly outfitting a client or customer, Elena had to be guided by a pattern. She had to understand the intended wearer’s measurements relative to the mathematical formula as drawn out in the pattern,

 In more complex designs and the application of non-standard materials, Elena had to develop more craftiness and dexterity in order that she mastered the patterns, cutting and sewing such as haute couture fashion-outfits,

 As work-in-progress accelerated, Elena’s training taught her how to make adequate and suitable alterations. Acceptable application of the use of pleats and darts underscored her prowess,

 As a trainee, Elena was shown and taught how to test, before final garments were made – she was introduced to the techniques of muslin application.

Garment Sewing Essentials

In order that the correct meterage of fabric was utilized, Elena as a qualified seamstress, was provided with a pattern, thereby minimising the least possible material in terms of trimmings and off-cut loss. Following the use of a pattern as a guiding tool, it was often necessary to identify the pieces that one had to cut. Therefore, items such as chalk, pins or tailor’s tacks had to be used. There could also be thread tracing, which certainly could act as a guide when the seamstress or machinist was doing the process of sewing.

A special stipulation that was practised was to make a decision on whether to cut on the grain or the bias. This feature would also provide the necessary manipulation in order that could facilitate fabric-stretch. Elena was also taught the extra skill of giving the final finished product outfit rigidity (and avoid flimsiness) such as the inclusion of interfacing or lining the under-side of the garment. This additional sewing feature would give the finished outfit, dress or garment a sturdier shape or afforded that extra bit of a firmer fit.

In order to add the final touches and “put the cherry on the top,” Elena was taught the essentials of edge-stitching, stay-stitching, top-stitching and French seam stitching. All this escalated Elena to the top of her group and class - thanks largely to her passion coupled with her innate skills and meticulous dexterity.

All in all, give or take three-months Elena became a fast learner and she could muster all the rudimentary basics, being guided and mentored by the class supervisor. Therefore, between the apprenticeship programme timelines of six-months to a year, Elena became the best understudy to a professional and could almost single-handedly; draw and sketch patterns, cut and sew the garments as outlined below :-

Fota

The first skill that Elena learnt was the design, cut and sewing of the fota. It was a wrap-around skirt made out of a length of woollen fabric. Depending from which province, region or suburb one comes from – the variation of material included a mixture of wool and cotton, Sometimes it was made exclusively from silk. The variation of the final garment could also be a front cover item such as an apron and a matching piece that covered the back. The colours were generally black, sometimes grey-brown. The finished garment was rich and its decoration was complete with a red border or hem and interwoven with gold and silver threading.

Poale

Additional to the fota final product, Elena was taught to measure, cut and sew a simplistic poale which was really an underskirt.

Le

This was a pattern of a normal shirt series. It had a gathered collar. Sometimes it has been addressed as the Carpathian-Shirt. Its similarity bore resemblance to the shirts worn by the Slavic tribes of Eastern Europe. Here, Elena learnt the finer aspects of sewing, seam stitching and embroidery. Furthermore, she learnt the art of décor of three colours, diagonal stripes and pleating patterns on the shirts.

Marama

Finally Elena was taught and trained how to fully attire and adorn a girl or young lady. An elementary knowledge of deportment came handy here. She was shown how to make a marama or basma. Translated, it was simply a headgear. During the “bride-undressing ceremony,” the godmother affixes a beautiful marama or basma on the bride’s head. The customary colour of the fabric was white with white interwoven patterns. Again, depending on the region, the interwoven pattern could be replaced with geometric motifs of different hues.

So, there we have it...a young Elena, however, with a head full of professional attributes which was going to propel her to fame and hopefully become an entrepreneur, in the near future!

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