After reading this article, please see our comments.

It seems not everyone waited for the high-tech bubble to burst: there are some who decided to pop it themselves. David Swidler, for example. Swidler, who until a few months ago worked in the purchasing department of a biotech company in the medical supplies field, today proudly heads up Hamafioso, homestyle desserts catering.

It all began with the birth of his firstborn son, an event that prompted Mr. Swidler to quit high-tech and devote himself to raising the tyke. Over time and between diaper changes, he began to fiddle in the kitchen, baking sweets and preparing crèmes.

Friends who partook of Shabbat meals chez Swidler responded enthusiastically, and the orders began to flow in. "At my first event, a Bat Mitzva celebration, I was more nervous than the Bat Mitzva herself," recalls Swidler, "but when I saw the excitement of the guests upon tasting the cakes and cookies I calmed down."

His love for chocolate can be felt in almost every dessert, and among his creations he numbers chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies, as well as his own versions of brownies and chocolate mousse (served as a plant, with chocolate cookie crumbs as topsoil and featuring a growing "flower"). Also available are marble cookies of chocolate and peanut butter, a variety of cakes baked to order and sweet challot from regular or whole wheat flour. The prices are reasonable: NIS 18 for 500gr of cookies, and about NIS 50 for a cake, for instance.

Swidler decided to call the business "Hamafioso," a play on words that uses the Hebrew word for "bakery" (maafiah) and the Italian word for a mafia personality. All products are pareve or dairy.

Hamafioso, Rabi Tarfon St. 8 Apt. 4, Tel. 6780566, 053690148 (Sun.-Thu. only)