Wow not even a week since last time!!!

Hello again and although it has been nearly a week since I last updated it is much sooner than usual!!

Well first of all if ever an answer was needed as to why it takes time to open such a shop and the unprecedented problems here’s a few examples

On Sunday Andrea was happily doing an olive oil tasting in order to finalise Massaro’s olive oil range when Elaine noticed that one of the external drains was blocked – he then spent the next 4 hours unblocking and cleaning the drains and with his brother coming in again to finish a few jobs later that day and his mum coming to help also that was the end of the olive oil session and he has not had time to get back to it since.

Yesterday he spent nearly 2 hours locked in the cold room!! Daisy was putting stock away in the cold room which was one of the basement rooms which they had converted into a cold room and she closed the door behind her to go and get some more stock – when she returned the door wouldn’t open. That was the end of that for then but later last night Andrea managed to get into it and after some time managed to get in and decided it was the door handle that was faulty. He took a handle off another door and went in to fit it - after fitting it from the inside the door wouldn’t open again and this time he was locked in – some time later a much colder Andrea managed to get out and then sorted the door out – well for now anyway. It wasn’t all bad though because if you have been following you will know that it is actually Andrea’s favourite room – Elaine thinks he could have got out sooner but he chose to stay in there so he could spend more time with the cheeses and salumi!!!!

If that wasn’t enough there is now a problem with the power upstairs whereby it keeps tripping and of course this needs to be sorted out before opening.

On a brighter note some lovely cheeses arrive today for Andrea and Elaine to sample and they say they are very nice. A young Pecorino from Sardinia has a very fruity taste with hints of pineapple – an amazingly named cheese ( Formaggio Bastardo!!) - no English translation needed, was also very nice and will appeal to you cheddar lovers out there – a fantastic new cheese to even the supplier – Pecorino Gran Sardo is very similar to the more commonly known Grana Padano but is made from sheeps milk and is much smoother whilst still having that slight grainy texture – finally Pecorino Pepato will appeal to anyone who knows the very commercial Pecorino Romano – Andrea has not been able to find an artisan Pecorino Romano but this will substitute nicely as it has the salty taste as well as a nice grating texture and enhanced even further by its peppery taste (pepato) due to it having whole peppercorns in it and of course it is produced in an artisan manner.

Some great cheeses for stock have also arrived but due to more delays some will not see the opening day as they are very fresh cheeses such as mozzarella di bufala, stracchino and caprino fresco – I think some local Regent Street businesses will be having some samples very soon!!!

Well that’s it for now but more soon - I promise.

Cheeky

Hello All

Well well I haven’t been updating as I promised but we have been just so busy trying to get the shop open as quickly as we can. I will start from today and give you a brief summary of what has happened since last time I updated.

Today we went to Andrea’s mum’s house as it will probably be the last time she gets to see both her children and 4 grandchildren for a while. Andrea’s brother works in Formula One so he is away a lot and of course with Andrea and Elaine so busy with the shop they have not been able to go to their mums as often so for the first time in ages we all went to see Andrea’s mum and it was the first day they had off for a long time – it has been 5 months now you know since they took the keys to the shop. To be honest they find it very hard to take a day off and even today we went to Bedford to see a potential cake supplier for the shop so was not a complete break but as close as they get to one!!

So what has been happening – well this week lots more stock started to arrive and for the first time cheese and salumi has arrived and Andrea could not resist going into the cold room every so often on Friday just to smell the cheese and salumi – he loves the smell that only good artisan produce emits. Elaine says that when they retire she will get him a cheese and meat maturing room just so he can spend his days with cheese and salumi!!

Andrea’s brother, Franco, was over this week helping put some finishing touches to the shop and they were very happy for this help as they have had to do most of it themselves but they did get a very nice compliment the other day – a local food shop came in to ask who had done the signs and design for the shop as he wanted to revamp his shop – he then asked where the other Massaro’s shops were – he thought it must have been a chain or franchise from London and he was very impressed to hear that this was a first and had all been done by Andrea and Elaine.

So much has gone on since I last wrote so I don’t know hoe to summarise but basically there have been lots more trips to suppliers and lots of hard work and is all coming together now and the only disappointment is that the shop i s not open yet as we had hoped to be open some time ago but Andrea and Elaine are so adamant that everything needs to be right and it is not as simple as it may sound.

However they have conceded that they must open soon and they are hoping to open at the end of next week. Andrea is a little sad about this as he doesn’t feel it is all right yet and he has had very little actually no time to do his favourite thing which is to cook so maybe after all this effort they may not open with all the plans they had but it will come and they just hope that customers keep coming to see what else is available because the ultimate will be great and to be honest Andrea is a perfectionist and so what you get from day one will be very very good but he is never satisfied – well that is what Elaine says.

OK I promise from today on to update you more often but I have said that before so don’t hold your breath!! But I will try.

Finally I found out today that Andrea’s cousin also called Franco ( I’ll explain another time ) has been reading my blog – I have never met him but his mum has seen me at Andrea’s mums house as she lives across the road but thank you for reading and we hope to see you in the shop one day although I might not be outside the shop as I have now got my own parking space and Andrea doesn’t get the time to take me the nearer the shop especially as there is a local traffic warden that has it in for me and keeps sticking tickets on me – you know who you are!!

Bye for now

Cheeky