At noon I spoke to a group at a very nice luncheon in the Tea Room at Bonbonerie in O’Bryonville. The guests heard me talk about the process of writing the book and some of the history of the various featured tearooms while they sipped on delicious teas and ate Pogue’s Mulligatawny Soup, the Woman’s Exchange Chicken Salad, and Shillito’s Coconut Macaroon Cookies.
Among the people there was a lady I interviewed while gathering firsthand memories and the one man who attended (they are a rarity!) was the former Executive Chef at Shillito’s who also had provided a lot of input, stories, and memorabilia during the research phase.
In the evening I spoke at Joseph-Beth Booksellers to another enthusiastic group. Among the crowd were more people I had interviewed when gathering research, including some of my test cooks (people who helped test the recipes in order to choose which would picked for inclusion in the book). Although not a full meal, we all enjoyed tea cookies to top off the presentation!
