26 June 2004

Vietnam: Nicole Remily and Rich Mc Featers, a technical team from Kraft, Inc. Snack Segment, led an on-site workshop in the basic production of cookies and pizza at the Da Nang Women's Union as part of the UN Industrial Development Program in Viet Nam. Twenty women from Da Nang area and the three surround provinces were in attendance at the six-day workshop that provided a train the trainers overview of cookie and pizza production techniques that might lead an entrepreneur to develop a market for these products.

Ms. Remily has spent over 16 years in Kraft's Biscuit processing/engineering department developing the techniques and processes for the large volume production of cookies and crackers within an industrial environment. Nicole's expertise was easily demonstrated in the daily lectures that she conducted on the processes and production techniques in a modern baking plant. Nicole's relaxed, but informative style was greatly appreciated by the women in attendance. Although the on site interpreters had the difficult job of translating ideas and concepts from American to Vietnamese, Nicole's skill and depth of background came through when answering the questions proposed by the women.

Mr. Mc Featers has over 25 years experience in the development of cookies and crackers for the same company having developed numerous successful marketed cookie and cracker varieties. Rich also was a lead participant in the development of an education course that teaches basic cookie knowledge. Rich provided fundamental cookie/baking chemistry and the interactions of the science of baking cookies in his lecture portion. Rich's humor was evident many times during the lectures and demonstrations that women gave him the honorific title of "Happy Buddha" - a moniker that will surely follow Rich for a long time!
Rich and Nicole structured the workshop day to have lectures, demonstrations, and then hands on experience for the woman in attendance. The workshop covered cookie production in following areas:

Basic creamed cookie dough (rolled, dropped, and pressed style)
Twice baked cookies (biscotti and Zwieback style)
Meringue style (cookies and shapes from egg whites and sugar)
Fried cookies (dipped moulds and free form cookies)
Cake like cookies (Madelines and variations on basic cake cookies)
Tulle cookies (rolled and alternative shapes)

Lectures covered basic ingredients (flour, sugar and shortening), specialty ingredients (baking soda and baking powder), food safety (handling of raw eggs in tropical environment), cookie and pizza costing, and other pertinent topics. Each morning began with a question session regarding the previous day's topic and proved to be a useful tool for gauging the participant’s knowledge and understanding of the concepts explored.

The women also saw in the daily demonstrations the versatility of the basic cookies doughs. Multiple cookie varieties were produced using locally secured ingredients, which allowed the participants to make and bake vanilla, cocoa, lemon flavored cookies. Or how other varieties of cookies can be made with the use on inclusions: dried raisins, fruit and nuts. The women mastered all of these processes and they should be able to reach out and teach others in these basic techniques.

An off shoot segment on pizza making was also demonstrated during the workshop. Since daily bread production and consumption is an integral part of the Vietnamese people, the potential off shoot of a pizza business would be very advantageous to the bread business owner. Using basic pizza dough and locally secured ingredients, it was demonstrated how creative one can be in making a pizza to the customer's preference. The women readily adapted to the making and baking of the pizza, but they mostly enjoyed the endless possibilities of the raw materials: green peppers, onions, mushrooms, shrimp and cuttlefish along with an interesting lesson in cross-cultural diversity with ham and pineapple - a style of pizza known in the USA as Hawaiian, but was readily accepted by the Da Nang's Women's group.

In both the cookie and pizza segments, “thinking creatively” and "thinking out of the box" is a daily occurrence for the small bakeshop entrepreneur who wishes to satisfy the demands a customer.
Overall, both Nicole and Rich expressed complete satisfaction with the outcome of the workshop and wish the entrepreneurs great success in developing off shoot businesses in Viet Nam using the knowledge gained from the cookie and pizza workshop.