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Chef Patricia Tamminga’s Dream Kitchen Collaboration with Designer Shannon Eddings

When chef and educator Patricia Tamminga was ready for a kitchen overhaul she turned to designer Shannon Eddings for the refresh she had dreamed of

Kitchen Aid

Kitchen Aid

Patricia Tamminga has a way of putting everyone around her at ease — children, adults, animals. She asks the right kinds of questions and makes the kind of eye contact that, in the middle of a chaotic day, creates focus and connection. Even a brief conversation with the former chef, teacher and cooking-class instructor is centering. This is ironic, given that Tamminga has what some might call a “full plate” (pun intended).

“I grew up cooking with my mom and grandmother in East Texas, in a lively kitchen full of family, garden vegetables and homemade bread. Cooking for me has always been about the experience, whipping up recipes and spending time with others around the kitchen table or, in my case, island. You’ll always find seasonal fruit, local eggs and good tea in my fridge.”

The Lufkin native, who studied finance at Ole Miss and culinary arts at Johnson & Wales, in Charlotte, North Carolina, began her food career at Brennan’s in Houston. After quickly realizing that the line cook life wasn’t for her, she moved to Austin in 2008 to pursue another passion: teaching elementary-age children. Teaching led to in-home cooking classes, where she guided children to “cook from scratch and become confident in the kitchen,” she says. These classes emboldened the instructor to renovate and convert a bungalow on 35th Street into Patricia’s Table, where from 2014 to 2018 Tamminga and her staff offered hands-on cooking classes to thousands of children. My own children were lucky enough to have been on the receiving end of these camps and classes, and I was always amazed at Tamminga’s ability to juggle the food work, the people work and the business work of running a cooking school.

“Tamminga wanted the kitchen to be light, airy and highly functional,” explains Eddings. The quartz Silestone countertops paired with articulating pendant lights from Visual Comfort and bright white Clay Imports tile create dimension, without any one item dominating the space.

After years of teaching in her home and at Patricia’s Table, Tamminga was ready for a pivot, and Beeline Market was born. Housed in the same sunny 35th Street bungalow, Tamminga and her new business partners, Jennah Granger and CiCi Steward, now serve Austin children through their grab-and-go meals and school lunch-delivery program.

“Closing Patricia’s Table was bittersweet,” Tamminga says. “Not only did I make incredible relationships with families, I also learned so much along the way. The relationships I developed with Texas farmers and local purveyors have served as a great foundation for Beeline Market. We are seeking to change the landscape for convenient, nutritious kid meals. Our bento-style ‘buzz box’ meals ensure that kids have the fuel they need to keep their bodies and brains energized and focused.”

In the midst of all this — teaching, cooking, managing, closing and opening (I’m tired just typing) — Tamminga realized it was time for her own home kitchen to get a much-needed overhaul. Enter Shannon Eddings. The local designer, who tends toward clean lines with traveled and textural influences, specializes in creating spaces that manage to straddle the accessible and aspirational. Eddings helped bring Tamminga’s classic and airy vision to life, and now the light-filled and highly functional space provides the perfect counterpoint to Beeline Market’s commercial kitchen, where Tamminga spends most of her days. Come on in.

Banana-Sweet Potato “Puffins”

Photograph by Claire Schaper

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup sweet potato purée
1/3 cup applesauce
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mashed banana
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons Barton Spring Mill 105 WW flour (store-bought whole wheat flour works great, too)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup whole milk (if making the pancake version)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Combine. Don’t overmix.

For muffins:

Preheat oven to 325°. Place muffin liners in a muffin tin. Fill the muffin liners 3/4 of the way full. Bake muffins for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

For pancakes:

Add 1/4 cup of the milk to the batter. Heat the griddle or skillet. Add a small pat of butter, coconut oil or vegetable oil to coat the pan. Cook pancakes. Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle and cook until a few holes form on top of each pancake and the underside is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until the bottom is golden brown and the top is puffed, about 2 to 3 minutes more. Using a spatula, transfer the pancakes to a serving plate.

Beeline Market mixes things up on Wacky Wednesdays by serving these breakfast “puffins” for lunch.