Outside the temperature is soaring to 80 degrees, but behind the secret door to the pastry kitchen, it's full blown Christmas. Now I always knew stores needed to prepare for the holiday season rush, but six months in advance? At first I was completely blown away. How could we be making several hundred chocolate desserts that wouldn't see the light of day until six months from now. But the more I paid attention, the more I learned.

At the pastry shop where I work, business almost triples over the holiday season. That means that cakes, macarons, and all sort of desserts must be made now in order to prevent staff overload. Each day we make more and more items that are wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, deep frozen, and then hauled off to some secret storage facility just outside the city limits.

My curiosity got the better of me one day, so I asked one of the chefs how something could taste good six months down the road. He assured me that even though something was frozen, it was just as good now as it will be in six or even nine months. The key is fast freezing.

There are many, many freezers in our kitchen. In fact, I was surprised to learn that just about everything is frozen at one point or another. I certainly wouldn't have known the difference. But we have one very special freezer that stays at an even -18 degrees. When items are frozen under these conditions, the crystals that form are much smaller. This means they do less damage to the individual cells and guard the flavor. Everything that we've been making is deep frozen like this and kept perfectly preserved until the Christmas trees arrive.

So just like Santa, we're getting in the Christmas spirit and toiling like elves preparing goodies for the good little boys and girls of Paris. Thank goodness it's so serious at work or otherwise we'd all be humming Christmas carols. And it's just too early to do that! 

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