I worked as a waiter at Baker’s Basket Aundh branch in Pune during my teenaged days. They kept us – all the staff underpaid for a year or so because the management had very niggardly mentality.
However their range of products, especially of cakes and pastries, was damn good and unparallel in the city. During my tenure I had strong penchant for Rum balls, Dutch Truffle pastries and Kathi rolls.
But the pricing was high for poor workers like us, and they never gave us cakes either for free or at discounted rates. This fact still saddens me when I look back now, for we could never buy much while working there as our salary for a 12-hour shift was very less, say around Rs. 2300/month. They had strict cooling counter rules and still maintain high standard of hygiene. And never forgets to maintain FIFO system for displaying cakes for selling - it means the first in the first order.
The fresh cake always looks first in the display line but customers get the last cake placed in that line until the stock is about finish. They have stringent rules for keeping the rotten stuff away on a daily basis. And the cake stock comes twice in a day – morning and evening. Then, they were better than others, don’t know about now.