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"Simply amazing."
Nothing could better describe Mary Jo, our head pastry chef. She's been with Turtle since before we've opened the doors, and in the baking business for twenty years before that. She's done everything here at the Turtle, including paint the walls, work on recipes, and since we did not have pastries and cakes available for the first few years of the Turtle's existence, she baked bread. Since we opened up the dessert pastry and wedding cake departments, she's in her element. Surrounded by frosting, flowers, chocolate, and the joy of weddings, you'll find her decorating cakes five days a week. Mary Jo believes that the taste of the cake is just as important as how it looks. So she only starts with the best of ingredients. Calibo Chocolate from Belgium; fresh fruit and sweet butter from Vermont. But enough of my thoughts of Mary Jo, our customers write her fan mail.... regularly. Below are just a few examples:
7.28.00 "I wanted to tell you how wonderful our cake was. Not only did it look amazing, it tasted great!! ...Some friends of ours are getting married next month, and changed their cake order to Turtle after tasting our cake.... Thank you for making our day so special."
--Tiffany
"Dear Mary Jo, thank you very much for making us a beautiful and very delicious wedding cake (and one later 'post' wedding cake!). ...you really made our wedding special."
--Rachael and John
But my special favorite of all the fan mail, to Mary Jo, is the following note that was penned on the back of a Christmas card. The card had on its front a photo collage of the couple's wedding of the previous October. In the middle of that photo collage -larger than the bride and groom- was Mary Jo's wedding cake. And this is what the bride wrote:
"Happy Holidays! Thank you for making October 1st, 1999 so fabulous!!! Doesn't your cake look incredible on this card?!" You're amazingly talented! Thank you!"
--Katie and Paul
Not only do we here at Turtle agree with Katie and Paul, but so does the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, Marshal Field's, the Galleria, Bachman's, all of who call upon the amazingly talented Mary Jo when they want someone to execute a miracle in cake, frosting and flowers.