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Photograph by Robert Scheer

Stephanie Gelman, teaches students in her chocolate-tasting classes that the chemicals produced by the brain when a person is in love are the same as those produced when eating chocolate.

Former 'yuppie' finds sweeter success story

By Pam Marino

Stephanie Gelman was a self-described "up-and-coming yuppie" who worked as a systems manager for Hewlett-Packard for 15 years. She had a good job making good money, and she was miserable.

"I woke up one morning and realized I was working on a slow suicide," she said.

Gelman made a decision to switch careers. She went back to school and started taking classes on the one subject she really loves: cooking. She now has a degree in food service and restaurant management, and a degree in pastry arts.

She worked for others for a while, cooking and baking, but she knew deep down what she really wanted to do was have her own business.

Thus Sweet Lorraine's was born, named after Gelman's mother. Gelman markets a line of specialty scones, sold in Sunnyvale at Wild Oats Market. The scones include lemon poppy seed, cranberry orange and oatmeal raisin flavors. She also sells gourmet scones like white chocolate, apricot walnut, and one with currants soaked in Marsala wine.

"My goal is to create something that I want to eat," Gelman said.

She said she tries to pack her scones with fruit, uses only the freshest ingredients and tries to make them "flaky, more like pie dough than bread." The scones retail for about $1.79 each.

Gelman also teaches pastry- and chocolate-tasting classes at Wild Oats. Her favorite is the chocolate class, in which she teaches the history and background of chocolate and shows the correct way to taste it. Students taste about 15 different chocolates in the class.

With 250 documented chocolate flavors in the world, Gelman said chocolate tasting is comparable to wine tasting.

"[Chocolate] is like a glass of wine that should be savored," she said.

In the next year Gelman plans on offering chocolate-tasting parties in people's homes.

Part of her chocolate class is teaching how the chemicals produced by the brain when one is in love are the same as those produced by eating chocolate.

"I make a dark chocolate Sacher torte that would cement any relationship," Gelman quips. "If you're having problems in your marriage, call me. I guarantee I can fix it."

Gelman also makes specialty cakes for any occasion. "I like to do unusual cakes," she said. "My cakes are more artwork."

On top of everything else, Gelman works as a home chef, cooking weekly for clients. For $20 an hour, Gelman plans menus for three meals, shops and then cooks the meals in the client's home. Two meals are for later in the week; the third she serves the day she cooks. She said the entire process takes about eight hours. Gelman said the service is worth it to families in which both spouses work and there's no time to make sure healthy meals are always prepared.

"I love to put beautiful meals on the table," she said. "There is something so personal about coming into someone's home and cooking for them."

For details about Gelman's services, call 736-7098, email steph@sweetlorraine.com or check out her World Wide Web site at www.sweetlorraine.com. For information about her classes call Wild Oats at 730-1310

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 29, 1998.
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