In Chalus, we rented a small shop and slept in a guesthouse at night. Hassan knew a bit about confectionery and could make gaz (a traditional Persian nougat). Somehow, we managed to procure a cauldron; we got our raw materials on credit; the owner of the guesthouse vouched for us, and we acquired flour, sugar, almond kernels, etc.; basically, we started the shop with nothing.
Initially, we only made gaz; later, we added chocolate. We wrapped them in colorful papers; kids would sell them and then bring back the money; each was sold for ten shahis. For every toman, we gave the kids three qirans; we also gave them a few chocolates for themselves, which made them happy. My partner and I worked on a fifty-fifty basis; I did the operations and management, and he was the craftsman.
Gradually, we turned the place into a confectionery, although he didn’t know how to make anything other than gaz. We brought another master confectioner on a daily wage of ten tomans; at that time, ten tomans was a lot. Later, we installed an oven and rented the front part of the shop for five tomans a day. I had brought boxwood from the forest and decorated the front of the shop beautifully. I covered the walls with white paper to keep them clean. I also ordered a sign: “Farde Tehran Confectionery”; I even obtained a license; I still have that license. One day, while we were working, a royal car stopped in front of our shop. A gentleman came down with a briefcase in hand; he looked around and asked if we could bake a cake for them. He said they had a very important celebration in Nowshahr and had brought everything from Tehran except the cake; they had forgotten it and needed one. I asked Hassan, “Can you do it?” He replied, “I don’t know how to make a cake.” I said, “Don’t worry, they don’t want to eat it, they just need it for decoration.” I had learned a few things; I told Hassan just to prepare a large dough and put it in the oven, and leave the rest to me. I told the customer, “Come tomorrow to pick up your cake.” I ground the sugar and prepared a mixture; I added different food colorings separately so I could decorate the cake with a piping bag; I took a large piece of paper and a painting brush and spent the whole night drawing a Kiani crown, a symbol of Iran and the ancient kings. In the morning, I cut the cake based on the sketch and then painted it to look like a crown; I wrapped the cake in large colorful papers, and it looked fabulous. I told Hassan if they cut the cake themselves, they would ruin it; he had to do it. Then, I went and bought a thin knife and some fat; I instructed him, “First, place the cake in the middle of the table, grease this knife, and then cut it nicely. If you let them do it, they will ruin it.” When delivering, I told the customer, “If this gets ruined, there’s no one here to make another one.” I said, “I’ll send my craftsman to prepare and deliver it.” Eventually, we put Hassan in the royal car with the cake on his lap; he did exactly as I had said; they even gave him a hundred tomans as a tip.
The fact that we made a cake for the royal party made quite a stir in Nowshahr and Chalus. Close to the New Year of 1948, the locals and the elite started ordering sweets; we baked and stored them. I went to the person from whom we bought supplies; I said we could no longer come night after night to pay, we needed to stock up for the New Year; he said, “Take whatever you need, load up the whole shop and take it.” We took the goods on credit, baked, and stored various sweets like Zaban and Danish pastries, among others; I still have the recipes. On New Year’s Eve, the place was emptied out; customers were lined up; we didn’t have time to count the money; we had a twin chest where we dumped it. Hassan and I hadn’t been able to bathe or even wash our faces for more than a month; we worked day and night. A few days after the New Year, it quieted down; we went shopping for clothes, socks, trousers, shirts, everything; we were in such a state that we were too embarrassed to go to a bathhouse. We went to the sea, took off our clothes, burned them, washed and groomed ourselves; then we took the chests and went to the home of the person who had given us the goods; they brought out a blanket, we emptied the money onto it, bundled it up, and paid our debts; we collected the rest and tidied up the shop a bit.