In a hotel every staff member has an important part to play in keeping an enterprise like this running smoothly. Of course you need a hotel manager, reception staff, a chef, waiters, cleaners, a bellhop and a busboy. Stefan works at the hotel. In the staff hierarchy, Stefan is right down the bottom. He is a kitchen porter with duties from early in the morning until very late at night such as fetch and carry; mop and chop; and endless amounts of washing up but in his heart Stefan longs to cook. While he completes his mundane tasks he dreams of making splendid cakes.
Instead every day Stefan has to make the coffee, wake up the chef, take breakfast to the Butler Mr Starch and then late into the night continue to wash piles and piles of dishes.
Then comes the big announcement. the Duchess of Delaunay is coming to the hotel. She has the power to shut down the hotel. Everyone must work to make the hotel shine. The Duchess loves profiteroles and so Mr Starch instructs Chef Zagat to create a profiterole tower - "the tallest, creamiest, most profiteroley tower in history."
I am sure you have guessed the plot line - disaster, no tower, Stefan to the rescue! Yes this is predicable but the truly wonderful part of this story comes from the reaction of Chef Zagat. Earlier she banished Stefan from the hotel for daring to offer help with the tower but when he arrives the next morning with his magnificent tower and saves the day, the chef acknowledges her mistake and promotes Stefan to the role of pastry chef!
We can smell the caramel flavourings and hints of lemon polish. We can imagine the silent feet, and sparkling glass. We realise the layers of people who make this hotel so esteemed. Thereafter, we are party to the reality of these people, and invest in their experience, especially that of Stefan. The message of the story is subtle and clever. What a sumptuous picture book! Bookwagon
When you read this book make sure you look for the cat and the mouse who have their own story running along side the action.
I am making a collection of international picture books published recently like this one from February this year. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverthing has supplied me with a basket full of treasures from her wonderful school library so you can expect to see many more great picture books featured here in coming days and weeks.
I do enjoy books about hotels. Here are a few I have talked about on this blog:
I mentioned the art of Isabelle Follath in a previous post about the book Joy.
Reading The Incredible hotel might inspire you to try making profiteroles. Here is a recipe.
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