Visitors to Kent Life will now be familiar with the newly opened Dotty’s Tea Room which officially opened last month, with the revamped café offering a cosy nostalgic feel from a bygone era; now the challenge is on, in a regional competition, to find some of Kent’s best recipes!
The newly opened café has launched a whole new menu in keeping with the 1950s era when Dorothy (or ‘Dotty’) Brundel was in residence at the historic site, and now the visitor attraction would like to hear about local Kentish recipes. The best of these recipes will be recreated and added to the menu and will become labelled as Dotty’s very own recipe.
Terry Martin, Kent Life’s new catering manager said: “We are very proud of our local history, heritage and anything Kentish. Dotty’s tea room already reflects this with 1950’s themed furniture, trinkets, pastel coloured walls and bunting, which is a real blast to the past! We’ve had people send in themed tea cosies which we are proud to use and display, and now we would like to hear from people across Kent with ideas and recipes on traditional Kentish food that they would like to see us serve. Whether it be Maidstone biscuits, Oast Cakes or Kentish Huffkins, we would love to hear people's ideas and suggestions. Perhaps someone out there has an old Kentish recipe favourite from years ago that has become lost in modern Britain? We’d invite those people to dig their old recipes out and let us know, and we’ll serve the ones we think people might like to rediscover or sample!”
Dorothy married George Brundel in 1927 and lived with her husband who had a successful dairy farm on the site that now makes up part of Kent Life. In its hey day, the 1950s, George Brundel filled all his milk bottles by hand and delivered them to the local Sandling village residents. Dotty’s Tea Room is a fitting homage to a nostalgic time and Kent Life is keen to hear from anyone with Kentish recipe ideas that ‘Dotty’ herself would have been proud to serve.
If you who would like to send in your Kentish recipe ideas please email info@kentlife.org.uk or write0 to The Catering Manager, Kent Life, Lock Lane, Sandling, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3AU. Selected recipes will be sold to visitors on alternative months in Dotty’s Tea Room in addition to the normal menu.