You can now get your Amai fix through Dean & Deluca. Our 24-Cookie Tea Sweets gift box is available through the Dean & Deluca website and catalog until the end of the holiday season. I have spent many hours looking through the impressive cakes, cookies and gifts in this wonderful catalog, and it’s a great honor to be included. Dean & Deluca ships throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii (not quite international yet, but it’s a start.) Enjoy!

Dean & Deluca
$42 +shipping
Tea Sweets 24-Cookie Gift Box from Amai >
(once on their site, search for “Tea Sweets”)

It’s back…Pastryscoop is holding their annual fall conference on October 22, 2006 at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Unlike many conference programs I have seen lately, I am impressed with the range of topics being offered. Some of the workshops I am particularly interested in include:

• Whole Grain Baking- Incorporate whole grains into your bakery items, without making it as heavy as a brick.
• C is for Cookies- Learn how to make tea cookies from the co-owner/baker from One Girl Cookies.
• Asian Adventure- French technique meets Asian flavors from the pastry chef of Buddakan.
• Retro Layer Cakes- The classics from the pastry chef of Baked.
• Oh, Chocolat- Learn how to make filled chocolate bars with the owner of Chocolat Moderne.

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Amai will be featured at Henri Bendel’s Tea Trunk Show this week from Monday, August 28 to Sunday, September 3, 2006. As you walk in the front door of this famous 5th avenue department store, you will see Amai’s Tea Sweets and Botanical Brownies for sale.

This is the first time our new, red gift-box packaging will be available in stores. You can also buy our new Tea Sweets 10-Cookie Canister in all 5 Tea Sweets Flavors (Earl Grey & Currant, Green Tea, Lemongrass & Ginger, White Tea & Strawberry and Chai Almond).

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Lovescool is so fresh and so clean. Andrew gave it a facelift, and brightened the design and reorganized the content of the site. This was the first update since we begain Lovescool in January of 2005. After almost 2 years, it was time for it to be reenergized. Now you can actually scroll through past posts, look through the archive, search for information, link to Amai (which is hasn’t been redone yet, but soon…) and see things in a properly formatted manner. Check out the comments! Instead of a funny font, they’re now in their own pink box. How fun. Thanks Andrew!

Reading other food blogs is my favorite way to keep in touch with what is going on around the world. I have found that regardless of hometown location, food bloggers are often very similar people, with their main goals being to learn new things and share their passion and knowledge with others. I am beginning to feel like I have met more New Yorkers online, through Lovescool, than offline. Maybe I need to get out more, but it’s the quality of people and similarity with myself that suprises me every time I get a note from another food blogger. They are often much more interesting than anyone I meet on the street. This is also true for those I have met around the world, like Keiko (Nordljus) from the UK, Cheryl (Buttercream and Roses) from Georgia, Shuna (Eggbeater) from San Francisco and many more. These are all of the kinds of people that make a difference in the world, and we are lucky to have a forum like blogging that allows everyone to find each other.

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It has been one month since the Fancy Food Show, and I’m just now finding the time to write about my experience. A lot has happened thanks to the show, keeping me very busy over the last few weeks. Attending the show was quite different than exhibiting in it. As an observer last year I came to critique. I ran through the floors looking for anything interesting to eat, and was entirely focused on the food. This year, when I was finally able to leave our booth, I found myself more focused on packaging options and sales collateral than the food! I did eat plenty in the end, but overall I got the most pleasure from meeting the people behind the companies exhibiting. I can now fully appreciate the work it took each company to set up their booths, stock it with samples, and keep it staffed for three long days.

So what does it take to have a booth at the Fancy Food Show? This will be a long post. Having a booth is like setting up a mini store. You have to worry about everything like flooring, samples, permits, staff, sales collateral and much, much more. Since Amai doesn’t have a retail store yet, this was a big effort to pull together. Kathryn and I split duties - she was responsible for assembling the booth, while I worked to prepare samples and packaging.

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Amai is busy and could really use the help of a few dedicated people. If you want to learn what it’s like to work in a commercial kitchen and help a new company get started, this is for you! Professional experience is great, but if you have a desire to learn about the baking world and are detail oriented I am willing to train. One thing to keep in mind before you say, yes, I want to make cookies! This is not glamorous work. In fact, you’ll be on your feet in a kitchen for 8 hours a day and potentially be covered in chocolate (if you’re anything like me). With that said, it is incredibly rewarding to make something and see it go out in the world to stores like Tavalon, Wild Lily Tea Room, Takashimaya and our next venture… Henri Bendel!

In particular, we need help in the following areas:

1) Part-Time Baker
You will be responsible for making delicious Amai cookies and brownies, including everything from measuring to baking to cutting. Must be available Friday, Saturday or Sunday from 8 am to 4 pm.

2) Part-Time Packaging Assistant
Help us put the packaged products together in its final, beautiful form. This role will also help with baking as needed. Must be available Friday, Saturday or Sunday from 8 am to 4 pm.

3) Part-Time Delivery Person
Spread the cookie love! You will bring Amai deliveries to stores around Manhattan. You should be strong enough to carry 15 pound boxes, and have a nice, smiling face that customers will be happy to see. A man/woman with a van would be great, or you must be able to drive a car we provide. Delivery schedule can vary depending on your availability.

Please send all resumes and questions to ineedsweets @ amainyc.com or call (212) 863-9630. I look forward to hearing from you all…

Today is a new day for Amai. After much hard work, laughter, tears, discussion, debate and negotiation, Kathryn and I have ended our partnership in the business. Kathryn will move on to new projects, while I will remain as the sole owner of Amai Tea & Bake House. This is an incredibly exciting day for me and I am looking forward to continuing to bring my ideas for Amai to life.

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Last year I attempted to make a recipe for Mini Pavlovas from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, How to be a Domestic Goddess. It was the first time I had ever made pavlovas and they turned out terribly. I had no idea if it was my inexperience, the small electric oven I used, or if the recipe was off. I posted about my experience on a blog, and Neil Parmar from SmartMoney magazine contacted me to ask about what happened. The reporter from SmartMoney was doing a story on celebrity cookbooks that were poorly tested, resulting in recipes that didn’t work well for home cooks. I started talking to him about my experience making recipes from cookbooks, and they asked me to demonstrate the Mini Pavlova recipe for an episode of SmartMoney TV, which airs (only) on SmartMoney.com.

The last time I was on film was for an episode of Romper Room when I was five, so my experience as a TV personality is quite limited. I was nervous and planned to practice the recipe again before the crew came to film, but I was short on time. I filmed the segment, making the pavlovas for only the second time (the first being the time it failed). They came out well, but my narration could use a little help. In the end most of what we talked about was edited out, and only the points that supported the theme of the article remained. Overall the experience was really fun, and the crew was really nice and helpful.

I can no longer hide faceless behind my words on Lovescool. Here I am on SmartMoney TV (click on the “Spotlight” link)…

Beyond the classic apple pie, nothing says “America” like chocolate chips and peanut butter. The chocolate chip cookie was invented in the 1930s by a woman named Ruth Wakefield who ran the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts (Nestle later bought the rights to the recipe). Peanut butter, usually passed up by the rest of the world in favor of hazelnut spread, is a favorite of most Americans. Put these two together and you have the perfect 4th of July dessert, especially when made with ice cream. For this year’s Independence Day celebration I decided to cool off with Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches.

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