“During the 10 years that my husband traveled abroad as a long-haul driver, I watched cooking shows with mostly men, and I kept dreaming: how I would like to be a male chef. It seemed that if only my husband was a chef, I would be the happiest woman.
That’s how I called myself. From the wife of a long-haul driver, I became the wife of a restaurant chef, – says Edita with a smile. “Even when he cooks at home, Giedrius decorates the plate in such a way that it would not be a shame to serve it in a restaurant.”
If you’re in Biržai and you’re walking around the main square with the big white church, look out for a food cart decorated with national motifs. On it, decorated with the sign of Thunder, the inscription “Chepoku” is white. Many people like to write the name of the mobile restaurant with “ų”, but Edita clarifies: “It’s not our last name here, but a nice name anyway. After all, it sounds fun: “Let’s go eat chepok”.
Edita and Giedrius – from Pačeriaukšta in Biržai district. Moved here from Kaunas in 2016.
“We lived in our apartment in Kaunas, my husband had a job there, I myself worked both in Vilnius and Kaunas, but we started thinking about children and decided to move to the countryside. Now this is no longer news, and at that time we were twiddling our thumbs that we decided to exchange the big city for a village”, recalls E. Čepokienė.
But that did not deter the couple from deciding to change their place of residence. Especially since at that time the people of Kaunas were fascinated by the activities of the Pačeriaukšta community. “We saw how they celebrate Mardi Gras, how they commemorate the Baltic Way – such a community! And we live in an apartment building, we don’t even know who our neighbors are. We really wanted to return to our homeland”, says Edita.
The young energetic woman who moved to the village was soon noticed by the community – she was elected as the community’s president. Soon Edita took the leadership of the Biržai district village community union and became a member of the municipal council.
“And my husband was a long-haul driver all this time. I gave birth to one child and another – I kept hoping that maybe the time would come when he would sit up. And he himself used to say – I would love to stay, but what will I need to live on?”, E. Čepokienė recalls.
Everything was changed by a movie that Giedrius, who likes to cook, suggested to his wife to watch. The movie tells the story of a chef who has a fight with a food critic. This one, unable to find a job in any restaurant, restored an old van with which he traveled around America while cooking.
“I watch the movie and call my husband and ask him, ‘Would you like that?'” “I would,” I hear. I ask: “Why didn’t you say anything?!” And he: “It seems like an unrealistic, unrealizable idea,” says Edita. – Since I had already written the project of the local activity group for the community, I knew exactly who it was eaten with.
I tried to write a project for my husband as well. Until it was clear that we would get funding for a mobile food restaurant, my husband drove like that, and I went around the village with two children, chickens, 50 rabbits and three sheep.”
Because of this, the woman remembers very well the day in May when she received the news that money would be allocated for their idea – her husband immediately returned to Pačeriakushė and stayed here. The first hamburgers were only offered to customers after almost a year and a half: until the end of December, Chepokai revised the documents, signed contracts, and then waited much longer than promised for the wagon to be ready.
Perhaps it’s no wonder that a woman today bitterly says that it is difficult to trust suppliers. After ordering the production of the wagon in January, Chepokai was promised to have it by the summer, but everything turned out so that they brought the wagon home only in October, they still needed time to test everything and settle in. November 11th also came, when “Čepoku” came to Birži for the first time.
“It was a huge challenge, because food carts usually work when it’s warm, and we opened at 18 degrees below zero: you put a bucket of carrots – and there are ice cubes, the floor is ice, the gas freezes…
The first day is chaos: no items have their place, I’ve never worked with a cash register, crowds of people are waiting, you don’t know how to count time… There were customers who waited an hour or even two for food”, E. Čepokienė remembers her first baptism.
Every evening, “Čepoku” goes to Čepoku’s house, and returns to the main Biržai square in the afternoon.
“The total value of the project is over 60 thousand. euros. For this price, a good apartment is available in Biržai. Who do you know, what are your nails for? After all, we need to manage, and there is no water supply here”, explains E. Čepokienė.
The couple sold their apartment in Kaunas because of the business. “After all, it was necessary to live for the whole year, tax obligations, unlike my husband’s salary, did not disappear, I myself was on childcare leave. Our parents did not support our decision: after all, real estate means stability, they said that it will be useful when the children grow up and go to study. But I said: I would rather have a husband at home than an apartment in Kaunas”, says Edita frankly.
She does not hide the fact that the start of the business did not live up to expectations: she expected that the earnings would be much higher – after taking the loan, she hoped to pay it back within a year, but now she is counting and wondering if she will pay it back in five? “But we are not starving, we have food,” the woman laughs.
There were already such thoughts when Chepokai thought: maybe he didn’t need his business?
“When do we see each other?” Either the man is here or I am here. Finally, we have two strong employees, so we have decided that there will be no Chepok in the wagon on Thursdays in May. So that the family doesn’t fall apart, – says Edita with a permanent smile. –
Family business is a very big test. It seems to me that having children and raising them alone was easier. After all, they say – if you want to test your relationship, start doing repairs at home: one works for one, another works for another. Exactly the same here – so much discussion! From how to train staff to menu and layout. However, this is a man’s business, so I try to lead less.”
An unpleasant surprise became from 9 to 21 percent. increased value added tax (VAT).
“I didn’t think it would feel like this – since March we had to raise the prices. We worked for two months when VAT was 9 percent. We were happy to get back at least a few hundred euros. It used to be a nice bonus, we used to say it was a man’s salary. And now on the 25th. on the day of the month, the accountant called and said to pay 700 euros. It turns out that the man didn’t get paid – he worked for nothing for a whole month”, says Edita.
The Chepokas hope that they will be able to accumulate “drops” during the summer, and in the winter they will be able to work one or two at a time. Now there are four of them in the team.
Despite everything, the woman is happy that her husband has been at home for more than a year. In addition, according to the project, there is an obligation to maintain the workplace for three years.
“Sometimes I tease (pronounced – tease) my husband: if something goes wrong, maybe he’ll get back behind the wheel of a tractor?” But now that’s all – you get used to the house very quickly, to the children every night”, says the interviewer sincerely.
