Residents of Paris gather recently for Tuesday Tea at McLaughlin Garden on Main Street in Paris. From left are Sula Makowski, Bill Burmeister, Jacek Makowski and Cynthia Burmeister. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
PARIS — One of the youngest principals of Valley View Orchard Pies in Oxford is on her way to running the family business, selling her homemade lunches this summer at McLaughlin Garden and Homestead on Main Street.
Angelena Dunham, 17, began working at the family business when she was 14. She entered the culinary arts program at Oxford Hills Technical School in Paris her sophomore year of high school and plans to continue her education in Southern Maine Community College’s culinary arts program.
Her new venture, Tuesday Tea Time at McLaughlin Garden, features her lunches made at the family bakery on Madison Avenue and sold weekly from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Main Street cafe.
Her mother, Lisa Dunham, owner of Valley View Orchard Pies, expects the lunches to continue until McLaughlin Garden closes for the season later this year.
Angelena plans each menu and prepares all the food. She offers a choice of sandwich or quiche for $10 and a variety of custom pies for dessert for $4 each.
She uses a different bread recipe each Tuesday.
The menu for Tuesday Tea at McLaughlin Garden is different every week and announced ahead of time on Valley View Orchard Pies’ Facebook page.
“We’d like to expand on the lunches and start selling them from the bakery,” Lisa said.
“I tend to lean more toward baking than cooking,” Angelena said.
She is a master of commercial baking, gaining experience in every department of the business. Her focus this summer has been on whoopie pie production, managing inventory and fulfilling bulk orders. She and some other bakers began experimenting with leftover batters to bake larger whoopie pies with different flavors each day.
“We save enough whoopie pie batter every day to make two cakes,” she said. “Today we’re doing peanut butter, and we’re working on something like a cookies ‘n creme but with peanut butter frosting.”
“They came up with the cake idea themselves,” Lisa said. “I was really proud. Whoever is available in the afternoon will try new flavors. Last week they made a chocolate chip with raspberry frosting.”
As if those combinations don’t have enough chocolate, the bakers also whipped up a traditional chocolate whoopie cake with fudge and a chocolate-raspberry frosting.
Hope Hill and her mother, Holly Hill, of Norway check out the dessert offerings recently at McLaughlin Garden on Main Street in Paris. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat
While baking is her go-to preference, Angelena is also working this summer at catering events for the business of one of her instructors.
“She is very talented,” her mother said. “At 17, it’s hard to believe she already knows everything she wants to do. She’s very much looking forward to running the business. And having her older brother work under her.”
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