fortune cookies
Fortune Cookies
Vocabulary
| wonder | fortune (2) | fortune cookie |
| giggle | crucial | sit around |
| flour | patent | brainchild |
| mill | bakery | on its own |
| endless | offspring | a long time to come |
| carve | throw out | carved a niche |
| niche | just right | it’s a fact of life |
| dough | utter | raise spirits |
| spirit | wisdom | as far afield as |
| steer | for now | work out (2) |
Video: Fortune Cookies
Transcript
If you’ve ever wondered how the fortune gets into the fortune cookie, now you know.
Sweet and Lucky is the brainchild of Vitoria, Kristof and Alexander Brauch. They left secure jobs to make their own fortune, after receiving a package from relatives in the US.
“We were sitting around the kitchen table with my parents — and there were a couple of fortune cookies. We read them, giggled a bit and said, ‘we knew we were going to make fortune cookies’.”
There’s no patent on fortune cookies, and they had a plentiful supply of one curcial, raw ingredient: flour, from their parents’ mill.
The mill is too small and old to feed the family on its own.
But although Victoria Brauch was a qualified miller, she still had a lot to learn.
“It’s a fact of life that small bakeries — our customers — are dying out. And that’s why we’re not investing in the mill. But we hope we can buy our dad’s flour for a long time to come,” said Victoria.
He’s still supplying them. That’s an important part of his offspring’s’ success. And they’ve carved quite a niche for themselves over the last ten years.
But until everything was just right, a lot of cookies had to be thrown out. It took endless experimentation just to get the dough right.
“But you learn from mistakes,” Kristof says.
Barely uttered, that wisdom is made for future fortune cookies. The messages have to be positive, things like “Your fortune will see great improvement,” or “You have no problems to solve right now.”
One side is printed in English; the other in one of fifteen different languages. Fortune cookies from Gondelsheim are raising spirits in Europe and as far afield as Singapore and Australia.
“I think it’s important to always look at the positive side of life because of the power of thought, that you steer your thoughts in the right direction, and the rest also steers in the right direction,” says Victoria.
That’s certainly worked out here. Sweet and Lucky now has 30 employees who produced 40 million fortune cookies last year. There are no plans for expansion. For now, everyone’s happy with what they’ve already achieved.
Questions
1. What is Sweet and Lucky?
2. The fortune cookie factory is very old. True or false?
3. The Brauch started the company because they were unemployed. Is this correct or wrong?
4. Did they get the idea from a Chinese restaurant?
5. What is their parents’ business? Is there a connection between their parents’ and their business?
6. They make perfect fortune cookies from the beginning. Yes or no?
7. Are the messages printed only in German? Are the fortune cookies sold and eaten only in Germany?
8. Are the messages positive, negative, or neutral?
9. Sweet and Lucky is a successful company. True or false?
A. What are fortune cookies?
B. Have you tasted (eaten) fortune cookies?
C. Should messages be positive, negative, or neutral?
D. Would you rather be an employee or business owner?
E. What business venture would you like to get in?
