Meet Joy, a 15yo now known as 'the Pancake Girl',
We migrated from Amsterdam to Broome in 2008. Joy was 3,5 yo at the time and has grown up here. Joy has had various jobs since she was a young teenager and worked at the markets since she was 12yo. She was an appreciated employee of Tone and Claudia selling burgers and crepes. A year later Joy also took on a job with Amanda from Dahlia designs, pearls and jewellery and shared herself over both employers. At times it got contentious when they both needed her yet she managed that well and is still loved by both (Tone unfortunately passed away in 2019).
One day Joy came home, just 14yo at the time and said: 'Mum I think we should have our own market stall'. I responded: 'Miss, you already have two steady jobs and some casuals to boot and I have a busy job, why? What would we be selling anyway?' 'Poffertjes of course!' she said. We are both Dutch and Poffertjes are a Dutch treat. And so the story of the
Lekker! Yummy! market stall started.
From the onset Joy was involved in all aspects of setting up our market stall. Initially the approval requests and budgeting to see if the idea was viable. Then Joy designed the logo, took care of social media, co-designed the set up, learned all financial aspects and took the lead in finding our perfect recipe. Joy turns out to be a perfectionist in customer service. If a portion of Poffertjes is not up to her standard, she will not serve it. Joy is always courteous and extremely customer focused. She trains up peers that come and work with us during busier times. Joy cooks, serves, leads and is always creative in problem solving.
I may be biased being her mum but I am impressed with her.
During Shinju Joy worked many hours yet kept up with her school work (had one mishap), stayed supportive of her friends and maintained her high work standard. Her earnings she saves to invest for university. Currently Joy is in Y10 and gearing up to undertake 5 ATAR subjects next year.
We were asked to come up with an Asian style recipe for the Makan Dulu food festival during Shinju. Again Joy took the lead in coming up with a great recipe that really transformed out traditional Dutch poffertjes into an unique Broome style treat based on Asian flavours (including coconut and pandan, topped with coconut and a syrup made of palm sugar syrup, local Walaja honey and infused with cinnamon, star anise and orange rind). It was a great success and the famous chefs attending the event praised our efforts.
Recently we came up with a way to make the stall more profitable over the wet season serving cold drinks. Again Joy took charge of how we present and serve (generous serves, a reasonable price and with a garnish of course). This will also enable us to keep at least one, but hopefully two, local teenagers into a job as most lost their steady jobs during the Covid restrictions.
Of course I let my daughter know that I appreciate her skills and efforts a lot. We receive compliments from appreciative and happy customers each market day and that gives her more than the earnings of good trading. Joy loves and enjoys interactions with clients more than anything, especially if they order in Dutch or share their own culture and language. If you visit Broome, please come and say Hi :)
