Jari Heinonen loves Christmas tarts. So much so that he wants to watch them every day of his work.
Jari Heinonen is Kokkola’s tart emperor. Jari Heinonen
It all seems to have started from a Christmas cake craving. Jari Heinonen had eaten too many Christmas tarts 17 years ago, but still decided to take a couple of tarts to his workplace just in case – it was hard to resist them.
That’s how it happened that one tart was left uneaten. A few days later, Heinonen looked at the dried cake and the empty wall of the study.
This year, Heinonen will stick the 18th Christmas cake on the wall of the company from Kokkola and the year 2024 below it.
– A little color for the day, Heinonen laughs.
As incredible as it sounds, no one at Heinonen’s workplace has wondered about the Christmas tarts on the wall. Everyone knows Heinonen and his antics.
Cake beauty for the eyes. Jari Heinonen
– I also nail work shoes to the wall. There needs to be a little personality on the job site, so you’ll have a better time, Heinonen encourages.
He has been named the cake emperor at work. Heinonen carries this title with pride. The task of the Tart Emperor of Luuuha is to study each year’s tart harvest and be the first to choose the most beautiful Christmas tart.
The selection criteria are the shape and regularity of the sugars, the place of the plum jam, the evenness of the baking and the amount of powdered sugar.
– A couple of hundred tarts are delivered to the coffee room from the company’s own canteen. We evaluate the year’s average and choose the best individuals from that.
When the most beautiful of the year has been found, we cheer and clap. Heinonen states that the sense of play must be remembered.
Of course, the cake is served in a festive atmosphere. Those who are dedicated to the matter have small sparkling wine glasses with pear lemonade in them.
Although Heinonen immortalizes the Christmas tart on the wall, his own favorite is the “failed” tart. It is best if the tart dough has not risen, but is even a little raw. At Christmas time, Heinosen is overwhelmed with such quantities of tarts that he doesn’t even begin to estimate the number of pieces. The answer is a lot. Likewise, chocolate disappears by the kilo. Heinonen admits that he is a person for delicacies.
Not a single Christmas tart has gone moldy, just dried out.
None of the Christmas tarts displayed on the wall has become moldy or turned into an unpleasant appearance. Only the baking surface is slightly lighter and the pastry has hardened.
There is no end in sight to the tradition, because there is still another Mokoma and more wall space left. Although Heinonen will retire in a few years, the next tart emperor has already been checked. The name has not been announced yet, so Heinonen is still talking about him as a friend.
Even though Heinonen sees Christmas tarts all year round, he only feels like eating them at a certain time of the year.
When the first snowflakes float to the ground, Heinonen starts thinking about Christmas tarts.
Jari was the first to tell about Christmas cakes Hearth.
The story was originally published on 29 November 2024.