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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Romina Rasmussen grew up in Salt Lake City. She received a bachelor's degree in international relations from the University of Southern California. She has lived and worked in places such as Miami, Flor., Washington, D.C., Taiwan and Hong Kong, working mainly in the telecommunications industry.
But after a while she decided to ask herself this question, "If I could do anything I wanted, what would I do?" She immediately knew the answer. She has always wanted to be a pastry chef and has loved baking since she received an easy-bake oven as a girl. So she moved to New York City and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute.
Romina now owns and operates Les Madeleines, a patisserie or a bakery that specializes in French pastry in downtown Salt Lake City. She serves more than just French pastries. In addition to other kinds of pastries she also prepares tarts, cookies, candies and other desserts. She has a lunch menu with items like empanadas and a turkey sandwich.
Romina says her favorite menu item is the chocolate cupcake. As for the patrons, they seem to favor the kouing-aman, a pastry from a region in France called Brittany that has butter, sugar and a gourmet salt folded into the layers of the flaky pastry dough. One of her patrons who was eating one as we spoke confirmed they are "really good." Well, I tasted one myself and that was an understatement. The kouing-aman is amazing.
Since Romina opened Les Madeleines in December 2003, she has built up a very loyal customer base. She has frequent customers from Orem to Ogden. Some come each week to buy butter toffee shortbread, the second most popular item Romina prepares.
Romina donates her services for charitable events about once a month. Everyday her leftovers go to the Homeless Youth Resource Center across the street. Those are some lucky youth! And Salt Lake City is lucky to have Romina back.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
