sharing food
When your guests have all arrived and are pleasantly focused on the charming late winter setting you have created for them, you can lead the transition to the high point of the afternoon—sharing food and tea. You will have planned the menu in advance with your guests’ interests in mind. In the ensuing chapters of this book, you will find instructions on how to select and make tea along with detailed menus and recipes for a wide variety of tea parties. All of these menus and recipes have been carefully developed and tested by Kathleen. You should feel free to adapt any of these to fit the particular occasion of your tea party and your guests’ unique needs and preferences.
When planning your menu, you should think first about your guests. You must also consider other factors such as your skill level in the kitchen, the amount of time you will have to devote to this project, the kinds of serving pieces and dishes that are available to you, and of course, your budget. Be realistic about all of these factors and choose a menu that you can create and serve to your guests without incurring stress and anxiety for yourself. Preparing the food for a tea party should be a joyful process.
When Rose is hosting a tea party on a Sunday afternoon, she likes to plan the menu at least two weeks in advance. On the week of the party, she does most of the grocery shopping on Friday and spends Saturday baking the cakes or other pastries and making some of the savory items. She then sets the table or tea try with dishes and linens on Saturday afternoon and creates the floral arrangements. This leaves the last minute items, the tea sandwiches and the scones, for late Sunday morning or early afternoon, just before the guests arrive. When Rose and Kathleen are in their kitchens cooking for a tea party, they are in heaven. That is why they are sharing this book with you.
However, if you cannot devote that much time to preparing the food for a tea party, give yourself permission to purchase some or all of the food. Several of the menus in this book can be bought entirely at a good restaurant or market. The Chinese Dim Sum Tea and the Indian Chai Party are two good examples. Whether you make the food yourself or buy it, do not worry if you have not quite finished your preparations when the guests arrive. Remember that the guests are your friends, and they will not judge you. They might enjoy watching you make carrot, ginger and cream cheese sandwiches while waiting for the other guests to arrive. They may even offer to help.
Let us return to your late winter tea party with a few friends. In planning the menu, you think about the many compliments you have received in the past on your pecan pie. You also think that pecan pie would be a good choice for the season. However, you know that one of your guests is allergic to pecans. What should you do? Should you rationalize that you will also be serving shortbread cookies and your allergic guest will be satisfied with shortbread while the rest of you are eating pecan pie? You know the answer: No. This will be a small gathering, and as much as possible, all of the guests should have the opportunity to enjoy all of the food. If you know that one of your guests attends a twelve-step program, you must not serve fruitcake soaked in brandy. You should show the same sensitivity to Mormon friends who avoid caffeine as well as alcohol. Since this is a tea party, everyone will expect to be served tea. But you can offer more than one choice. Since this is a winter gathering, you might serve a nice English breakfast tea, which contains caffeine and perhaps a cranberry or apple flavored herbal tea and another herbal tea flavored with winter spices. This will give any guest who wants to avoid caffeine an attractive set of choices.
It would be wise to get a calendar that lists all of the national and religious holidays of the world. This can help prevent you from making your guests uncomfortable. You do not want to host a tea party on a Friday afternoon featuring sausages in puff pastry only to discover that your gathering is taking place during Lent when Catholics do not eat meat on Fridays. Also, keep in mind that observant Moslems and orthodox Jews never eat pork, and Moslems eat nothing before nightfall during Ramadan. As cultural diversity becomes more and more a way of life for all of us, sensitivity to the values of other cultures can only make us better people. As you will see from the very diverse selection of menus in this book, cultural diversity also makes for great tea parties.


Once you have made sure that none of the food items on your menu will cause your guests any discomfort, the rest of the meal planning is pure fun. Just think about what your guests would like to eat on a cold winter afternoon and give it to them. The food served at a traditional tea party usually falls into three categories served chronologically:
Savories
Scones, crumpets or breads
Sweets
The tea carts used at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, Canada, (one of the monarchs of afternoon tea establishments,) have three tiers with savories on top, scones in the middle and sweets on the bottom. You can also find a variety of tiered serving pieces to add to your personal collection. The savory items, which might include small sandwiches (with the crusts cut off, of course,) deviled eggs, or cheese, form a healthy and protein-rich foundation for the repast. The scones, traditionally served with clotted cream, jam and lemon curd, create a bridge between the savory and sweet courses. The sweet course usually offers several choices, from tiny tarts and cookies to cakes, gelatins and puddings.
All of the food at afternoon tea should be beautiful and served in small portions. Kathleen’s mother, Margaret (Rose’s sister,) has pointed out that afternoon tea should remind us of the food we loved to eat as children. This may be the secret to the enduring appeal of afternoon tea. It provides the ultimate comfort food experience layered with happy real or imagined childhood memories.
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