This Mother’s Day, our café transformed into a traditional English tea room for a special mother & daughter high tea…with a twist. The twist? We taught mother and daughter teams how to prepare many of the essential recipes of afternoon tea.
Guests gathered in our kitchen and immediately dove hands into rich cream scone batter, delighting the little ones. Of course, aprons were provided to all in order to prevent any mess upon lovely tea dresses. Next up, everyone made their way over to the custom scone bar, where they designed their own scones with a variety of mix-ins from the simple chocolate chips and pecans to the more gourmet options of lavender and crystallized ginger. 
We then went on to prepare clotted cream, tomato jam frittata and quiche, raspberry custard tartlets and decorated vanilla tea cakes that I had popped in the oven just before guests arrived. I set everything to bake and guided guests into the tea room for a first course of cucumber tea sandwiches. Foregoing the traditional here, sandwiches were made with lovely aiolis created by Chef James of Pure Catering and Chef Jesus of Fandango. Out came the tea as the kettles whistled and scones baked until a crispy golden.
Scones were served with clotted cream and a selection of preserves except for one of the show stars – as simple sharp cheddar savory scone. All guests were so enamored with their scones that everyone took theirs home. Naturally we had plenty to go – we made a total of seven batches!
While most of our events feature a guest chef, on rare and very special occasions, I teach cooking classes at Kitchen Incubator by myself. I only teach classes when I have a special connection to the menu. Far from the well trained chefs that lead our regular programming, I choose from the recipes that have been staples in my repertoire for years, often, since before my age entered double digits. Sometimes, as on Mother’s Day, when I don’t have the heart to hire someone to help with the event, I even run the entire event by myself!
This particular event was near and dear to my heart. For years, my mother and I celebrated Mother’s Day and many other special occasions with a traditional High English Tea, experiencing elegant high teas at Harrod’s in London and the famed Bath Pump Room. Throughout my childhood, I prepared some of my first baked goods in an attempt to create an English Tea breakfast in bed for my mom on Mother’s Day. I dirtied nearly every dish in the house and in my childish state, can hardly remember what a mess I must have made – but my mom tells the stories fondly. This year, as a Mother’s Day gift to my mom, I surprised her with an air reservation for a visit from me in June when I will deliver her own private “Mother’s Day” High Tea to her and a group of her closest friends and their daughters.
All of this chat of afternoon tea and last Sunday’s incredible success have me wondering…. should high tea at Café KI be a fairly regular thing? Would you like the cooking class aspect or just want to enjoy tea? Either way, we will definitely be making our “Tea for Two” packages available for special order when our café launches for anyone who would like to surprise their mum with high tea, no messy kitchens involved!
Startup Weekend
We took a break from the kitchens to enjoy a stroll through Saturday evening’s Lights in the Heights, one of my favorite Houston activities. Then, on Sunday, came back for more to make boozy egg nog, Mexican hot cocoa and New Mexican Christmas cookies for our First Annual Holiday Cookie Exchange with the Dessertology Meetup Group. Guests brought a dozen cookies to share and a dozen to exchange, each leaving with an impressive assortment of holiday treats ranging from traditional shortbread to pumpkin chocolate chip.
On Sunday we invite everyone to join us for 
I made the mistake of advertising the buffet as free to anyone willing to do the work of removing it from the site. Dozens of emails poured in within a few hours. Many were strangely picky for something free – “what is the exact color of the granite? Can you send more pictures? How much does it weigh?” One email stood out from the pack. It was from a couple who had lost their restaurant due to Hurricane Ike damage and were looking to rebuild. They’d be commuting from up north and doing the work themselves, but had a truck and tools and were ready to assess the materials.At the time, my landlord’s start on construction was eminent, so I got the interested couple into the space soon and explained they could help themselves to the buffet and to any of the tile on the walls. I was initially concerned about the weight of the granite as they were an older couple, but they assured me their sons would be in to help. We made arrangements to meet the following weekend and they could spend the day attacking the tiles with an air hammer. 