Today we’d like to introduce you to Merry Matti.
Hi Merry, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
The love for food and the culinary world has been a part of my heart since I was five years of age. I began with boiling pasta and chopping salads. As I grew, so did my love for being in the kitchen. During my sophomore year of high school, I joined the CTE Culinary Pathway, serving as ambassador for the last year of the program. This was the moment I knew that I must, under any circumstance, pursue this as a career. I did not want to be anywhere else. However, having been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis since I was twelve, I began to rethink whether being in a high-stress environment was such a wise objective for me to have. At this time, it felt as though I was taking my heart and breaking it with my own two hands. During my first year in the culinary program, which was during the year of 2017, French macarons caught my eye on the internet. I loved how they looked.
On a spontaneous trip to the grocery store, I picked up almond flour just in case I decided to make them. Weeks passed, and I did not make my first batch. However, one day I had mentioned my plans of making the exquisite French macarons to my culinary arts teacher, which is when she gave me the push that I needed to go ahead and make them. She even gave me a pack of gel food coloring to use.
February 18, 2017: the day that I made my very first batch.
After showing my culinary teacher the photos, she stated that they look like they came out of a magazine. Today, this very sentence has come to life.
My journey did not remain consistently successful. After graduating high school in 2019, my macaron business took a halt. I did not make macarons for years.
Recently, God has lit a fire within my very core, leaving me with the urgent need to make this business what it deserves to be. Making macarons gives me the purpose and butterflies that nothing in this world can bring on. Every time I witness how beautiful the feet are on these princesses, it is like a mother seeing her baby for the first time. I call them princesses because of how temperamental and delicate they are to make perfect. From this moment on, I will NEVER abandon my passion, and continue to grow Merry Macarons until I achieve my dream of opening Merry Macaron Cafe. Life is certainly too short to not spend doing what you love the most.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have always been known to be incredibly creative and artistic in all that I do. My cooking has been the number one thing that truly embodies this. It might be surprising to note that I do not actually bake. My French macarons are the mere exception. The place that I shine the most is within the category of savory food. This is due to the fact that I love to cook freely, using intuition as the main guide. The act that I do not like the most is following recipes, which can be an issue due to the fact that every dish that I produce is unique in a certain way. However, I have been working diligently on writing down the ingredients that I throw into my dishes so that they do not remain a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and are able to be recreated by others. Further, I currently work at San Diego City College and attend school at San Diego Mesa College. Aside from my life in the kitchen, I am studying to attain a degree in Health Information Technology / Management.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
The single most quality that is truly crucial for my success is being resilient. For one to be successful, they must realize that not every day will be 100% perfect. When it comes to making French macarons, the humidity in the air holds the ability to cause the shells to crack. It can be mentally draining to expect that there will not be any bumps in the road. This is definitely something that will either make or break the path to success.
Feeling hopeless after a couple of bumps will do nothing but ruin the greatness that is destined for your life. Instead, as Bruce Lee has once said, “Be like water, making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water.”
Pricing:
- Half Dozen macarons (6) : $15.00
- One Dozen or More (12+) – $4.50 off of order
Contact Info:
- Website: merrymacarons.shop
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merry_macarons/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macaronsbymerry
