Mix one American expatriate, "inherited" managers, Soviet-trained bakers, and a Danish baking instructor with an Irish accent. Blend in the collapse of the Soviet legal system, derelicts that heave bricks through windows for sport, and mafiya racketeers. Put all them together in a decrepit bakery plant, and you will have just a taste of what lies between the pages of Boris Zemtzov's charming new travelogue, "The Merry Baker of Riga." An American businessman with no roots in Latvia, Boris Zemtzov nonetheless decided to establish a Western-style bakery there in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet. Forced to ramp up to speed with learning the culture of a new country, he must also find a common language with the managers he "inherited" from the Soviet Enterprise. Together they divide tasks and work to establish "The Merry Baker," repairing a decrepit bakery plant, finding retail space where almost none exists, and re-training Soviet-trained bakers. Along the way, Zemtzov's experience with Russian mafiya, racketeers who threaten to drive him out of business results in the first "sting" operation launched by an expatriate in the former Soviet Union.
