Passionate about cooking and baking, Angela Comendant has always dreamed of launching her own business in this field. Even though she is a teacher by profession and had become a high school director, five years ago she left her job to open a restaurant in Cotiujenii Mari village, Șoldănești district.

"I was director of high school and thought I could successfully combine both activities. It was hard, but I had to leave teaching and high school to realize my dream. I started building the restaurant in 2017 and in 2019 we started the business," the entrepreneur remembers. 

Over time, the Comendant family also opened an agri-touristic pension, then bought a few more old houses, besides the restaurant and pension. Now the entrepreneur is planning to rebuild the houses while preserving their authenticity.

"I started the business out of my passion for cooking, but also from necessity. We wanted to invest the money in such a way that it would ensure our subsistence. In addition to the restaurant and pension we planted orchards and continue to invest," says Angela.

The most popular room in the restaurant is the bread and pastry room. Here the entrepreneur can spend hours. With fruit from her own orchards, she produces both fruit bread and pastries.

"Our biggest problem is the heating system. The area where the restaurant and guesthouse are located is not connected to the natural gas grid and the heating system is connected to electricity. We heat the spaces from October to March and the bills for the last two years have been enormous," says the entrepreneur. 

The entrepreneur found out about the UNDP project "Emergency support for agri-producers in the context of socio-economic, climate and energy crisis", participated in the announced funding competition and got support from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) to purchase a 33 kW biomass boiler, a wood shredder and a pelletizer. This will reduce her electricity bills to zero.