Oct. 23–For 19 years they've worked together in the pastry department at the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. Jorge Sotelo is the executive pastry chef, Nubia Renteria is his top assistant.

The work is high volume and includes making plated desserts for Napa Rose, Carthay Circle, the Storytellers Caf? and the Veranda, the Grand Californian's club-level lounge. They lead a bakery team of 19 that takes care of the entire hotel, sometimes turning out six wedding cakes a day and providing desserts for banquets of up to 800 guests.

It's a dream job but a demanding environment. For special occasions, every dessert must meet the "Disney magic" standard, wowing diners with vivid flavors and dramatic presentations from a white chocolate flower that blooms when warm tangerine soup is poured over it to a sugar dome shaped like a pi?ata to be shattered with a spoon to reveal a cake underneath.

In the world of Orange County hotel pastry chefs they're at the pinnacle. You would expect each to be a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Neither is. Although their careers took unconventional routes, it seemed their paths were destined to be blended together, converging in this sweet spot.

From magical Ocotlan to the Magic Kingdom

For Sotelo, a journey to the Magic Kingdom started in Ocotlan, Jalisco, a town with a reputation for furniture making. It's even more renowned for two mystical landmarks, the Foco Tonal, purportedly a place of great psychic energy, and the basilica dedicated to Nuestro Se?or de Misericordia (Our Merciful Lord). It was named for a 1947 vision of Christ on the Cross, "seen" by an entire congregation during an open air Mass celebrated 24 hours after a devastating earthquake.

Sotelo left his hometown, arriving in the U.S. in 1985. He began working as a dishwasher at the Hyatt Regency Irvine but his role changed one Sunday when a colleague called in sick. A manager summoned Sotelo to assist the French pastry chef whose first name was Didier (Sotelo can't recall his last name). Sotelo pitched in, despite the language barrier. "I didn't know English at all."

He simply anticipated the chef's every need. Seeing him begin to work with ice cream, Sotelo ran for a scoop and a hot water bucket. When the chef pulled raspberry and vanilla sauces from the walk-in cooler, Sotelo headed for the silver room to fetch serving pieces. Less than two weeks later, his dish-washing days were over.

The head chef spoke to Sotelo as if he'd worked a miracle. "He said, 'I don't know what you did to that guy but he wants you to work for him.'"

Soon Chef Didier began encouraging Sotelo. "He told me 'you have good hands.'" A high compliment because French pastry chefs seek apprentices with dry, dexterous fingers, sometimes dismissing them after a single handshake — clammy palms ruin delicate dough.

Then one night the lessons took a turn. Chef Didier was driving Sotelo home from the hotel to his house in Santa Ana. Sotelo reached for the radio and tuned it to the Spanish station. Chef stopped him and changed it. "No. No Spanish," he said. "TV, too. Watch TV in English."

It seemed a direct order to start taking himself seriously. "I don't know why but he saw something in me. He started teaching me some of his secrets."

Fast forward 10 years. Sotelo's working at the Paradise Pier hotel when Disney decides to buy it. The sale strikes fear in the hearts of employees praying they'll hang onto their jobs. When Disney decides to keep him on, Sotelo ups his game. He asks for a leave to attend a seminar at the French Culinary Institute in Chicago to study with its founders: Sebastien Canonne and Jacquy Pfeiffer.

His request draws a blank from Chef Bill Orton. "He said, 'You don't have time off and we barely know you. But let me see what I can do.'"

Two days later general manager Tony Bruno called Sotelo into his office. He reached into his desk and pulled out airline tickets. "He said, 'Jorge, everything is paid for. Go learn as much as you can.'"

"It was my first time staying in a beautiful hotel. I was really crying and thanking God for what this company did for me. I'll never forget it because it changed my life. Not only my life, but our lives."

From doughnuts to the Disneyland Resort

When he says our lives he's referring to Renteria. By the time she arrived at a Disney job fair, Sotelo was doing the hiring. He was impressed by the bilingual graduate with savory and pastry certificates from Cerritos College.

"I could see that she was someone whom we could trust and she was hungry to do something with her life."

She had actually been working in the industry since she was 12 — every day after school and every summer — at her parents' doughnut shop. She was born and raised in East LA, her family coming to the U.S. from Sinaloa, Mexico. Mom had worked in a doughnut shop and decided to buy her own. Dad was a natural baker who learned to cook from his mother.

One day a customer came in and asked for a cake. Why not? That started Renteria on a whole new path. Her father would bake cakes and she was charged with decorating them. "I didn't know what I was doing," she says. But she ended up making hundreds. "Eventually I thought, I really enjoy doing this."

She dreamed of studying at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa but her mother thought she should stick closer to home and give Cerritos College a try. A Disney job fair came along just as she'd finished her last semester. "I started as a kid at the bottom," she said. "I was 21 years old. They just took a chance on me."

She began at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel as an entry-level pastry cook, within six months she was a lead. When the Grand Californian opened a few months later, she became a lead baker, eventually she was promoted to sous pastry chef.

Now they're two old pros working side by side.

"Jorge is the sugar master," she says, complimenting his sculptures. "He's the one who trained everyone who came after him."

"She's very detailed," he says of Renteria. "I can give her a brownie and she can make it so beautiful with so much eye appeal. Her personality is really unique and I want to thank God for her life, for being with us and being so helpful to my team. Without her it would never be the same."

She begins to blink back tears hearing him say this aloud. "He's like my second father," she says. "She's my right hand," he says. Their boss, Chef Andrew Sutton, who critiques their plated desserts each week, confirms it's true: Renteria ran the pastry department during Sotelo's six weeks off for knee surgery.

Of course they do have occasional disagreements. "He's really open and honest with me," says Renteria. "He'll definitely tell me if he thinks something's not working." And she will let him know when she's not happy. "She can get mad at me in three languages," Sotelo says with a chuckle, adding French, the lingua franca of all bakeries, into the mix.

But the proof is in the pudding and it's likely Sotelo sees a bit of himself in Renteria when he considers how far she's come.

"From the first day, I knew she was going to be my right hand," he said. "Without being a leader, she was a leader. Without being a pastry chef, she was a pastry chef. I think when you start with those things sooner or later you're going to get there. If you see yourself as a chef when you wear the chef jacket you're going to become one. Now she's one of the best."

Disneyland Resort Hotel and Culinary Job Fair

When: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24Where: Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, 1600 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim