The Swiss style bakery Edelweiss opened in Biddeford on Alfred street earlier this year. Eloise Goldsmith photo
BIDDEFORD – Valentina Correa Weissenfluh has known practically her whole life that she wanted to work in a kitchen. “I’ve been passionate about cooking since I was – I don’t know – 10 years old,” she said.
Growing up in in her native Nicaragua, Correa Weissenfluh started out making simple foods, like pizza. Her parents, who have worked in both hospitality and tourism, realized quickly that she had a calling. With their support, she eventually left home at 19 to attend culinary school in Vitznau, Switzerland.
The school – then called DCT University Center – was where she met her now husband Alex Weissenfluh, who is originally from Delaware but has strong family roots in Switzerland. The couple didn’t get together immediately, pursuing different opportunities after graduation, but eventually reconnected and moved to Pennsylvania where they both worked in the same hotel restaurant.
From there they did a stint in California, got married, and decided they’d rather be on the east coast, closer to Weissenfluh’s family. After spending time in Nicaragua, they landed in Maine, where she secured a job as a baker at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunk, and then later became a pastry baker at Standard Baking Co.
The couple has dreamt of opening a storefront for the entire time they’ve been together, said Correa Weissenfluh. In January, that dream came true, when Edelweiss opened at 5 Alfred St. The outfit sells all sorts of Swiss-style confections, but the business initially launched as an online seller of truffle chocolates, which they would make from home. The duo would sell them at holiday markets and wholesale to local businesses, like the recently closed specialty grocery store, Part & Parcel.
Thanks to an SBA loan with Kennebunk Savings Bank, they were able to secure a physical bakery location on Alfred Street, right down the street from the new eatery Catface Cafe.
Correa Weissenfluh has always wanted her and Weissenfluh to be business partners. “My parents were business partners all my life, and I saw the positives and negatives.” It’s not easy work, but it did afford them a certain level of freedom and flexibility, she said. She wants the same for her family with Weissenfluh.
At a ribbon cutting for the business on April 18, community members flocked to Edelweiss to sample treats and celebrate the new bakery.
Edelweiss’ menu features items like zwiebel-chuechli, a caramelized onion and appenzeller quiche, or an apfel kuchen, an apple cake baked in vanilla custard and sweet dough tart.
Correa Weissenfluh said that there are subtle but important differences between Swiss baking and French baking.
A Swiss style bundt cake, for example, is airier and less dense. “We make gingerbread, but they’re actually not gingerbread cookies, they’re more like spice candy cookies. So there’s always a bit of a twist. (The style) goes between American, German and … French,” she added.
What they sell is also influenced by Weissenfluh’s relatives who immigrated from Switzerland. On a shelf in the shop are cookbooks, some of which have his grandmother’s original recipes, said Correa Weissenfluh. They even still use his grandmother’s cookie press. “It’s pretty old, but it still works,” she said.
Edelweiss’s hours are Thursday and Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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