Lessons Learned in the Andon‑Reid Kitchen

One of the most common questions guests ask us during breakfast is how we developed our cooking and baking skills.  Neither of us went to culinary or baking school.  We have been learning our trade ourselves ever since we hatched this plan to become B&B owners.  About five years before Brenda retired from the US Navy, we started practicing and never looked back.  We’ve been cooking and baking for our guests for over four years now, and we continue to hone our craft, bringing daily culinary delights to those who choose to stay with us.

We’ve learned that running a B&B kitchen teaches you things you don’t learn from cookbooks or baking shows.  It’s a blend of early‑morning improvisation, careful planning, unexpected curveballs, and the quiet joy of watching guests photograph their food before taking their first bite of something you made with care. Over time, our kitchen has become a classroom, one filled with laughter, a few disasters, and plenty of discoveries.  Before we bought the Andon-Reid, we scoured through cookbooks, tutorials, and chef memoirs, watched hours of The Great British Baking Show (among other shows), and practiced on Sundays with our family as guinea pigs.  But none of it could compare with what we’ve learned being in the kitchen day after day at the Inn.

And to add to the uniqueness of a B&B kitchen is the fact that it’s just the two of us in the morning.  We don’t have a big staff to help with cutting, chopping, and making coffee for guests, plus we have to get the kids ready and out the door to school on time! 

Here are just a few of the lessons, some classic and some unique, that we’ve learned along the way. 

“Mise en place” isn’t just a fancy culinary term; it’s the difference between a calm morning and chaos. Too many times we’ve said, “Eh, I’ll cut up the cantaloupe and peel the potatoes in the morning,” and it is always a bad call.  As much as we can do the day before, we do.  Getting the cutting, chopping, and additional elements ready so we can focus on making things taste and look great is our saving grace.

With a small residential kitchen, it’s very tempting to use only one pan to save space or time (or to reduce dishes), but it’s almost always the wrong call.  Give those potatoes room to crisp up in the pan and those peppers and onions space to develop that taste-enhancing char.

Our one exception to this rule is with scrambled eggs.  A bit more in the pan than you think will help get those big, fluffy curds that make scrambled eggs such a special, comforting dish.  As long as you can keep them from sloshing outside the pan (which Peter often fails at!), you should be good to go.  Speaking of scrambled eggs, don’t rush them!  Starting at a higher heat is fine, but always finish at a lower heat to maintain that fluffiness!  No one likes browned scrambled eggs!

No matter how confident we are in a new recipe or concept, it’s become clear to us that it never comes out quite right until you try multiple times.  For most of our breakfast recipes, it takes, on average, 4-5 times to get it where it is a finished, elevated dish.  And oftentimes it’s not the recipe that needs tweaking, it’s the process of preparing and assembling the ingredients that makes all the difference and allows us to focus on flavor and presentation. We’ve learned that it’s just not a reasonable expectation to get in the kitchen and make something spectacular on the first try like those cooking show pros.  That’s not reality, that’s superhuman!

Making cookies is a down-home art form, and the freezer is absolutely your best friend!  Preparing your dough and using a cookie scoop to store the cookies in the freezer is not just about efficiency; it makes your cookies more uniform, chewier, with a better texture, and helps them keep their shape when baking.  Even when you plan on consuming the cookies the same day, we still prefer to freeze them to help with the baking process.  They just come out better!  And as a bonus, it’s perfect for having cookies on hand whenever needed for kids and grandkids!

And as an aside, we must mention that for our guests, we make all sorts of different afternoon treats, from cookies to bars to macaroons and more.  We have found, however, that people love cookies, and you can never go wrong serving a heaping plate of fresh-baked cookies in the afternoon.  A guest favorite at the Inn is Cowboy Cookies, but regardless of the flavor, they all disappear just the same!

Brownies are another guest favorite at the Inn, and we’ve got a recipe that has stood the test of time and been passed down through generations of Brenda’s family.  However, we’ve learned that it’s not just our recipe that makes them a hit; it’s the process of cooling that gives them that classic, fudgy interior.  We’ve learned that after cooling on the counter for ten minutes, a stint in the refrigerator for the remainder of the cooling process results in fudgy perfection.

And speaking of brownie tips, we’ve come to rely on flavored olive oils to make our goodies stand out.  Orange is a classic flavor that we add to our brownies, but many olive oil stores have tons of unique “sweeter” flavors, like lemon or other fruits, that can carry the day as well.  

Before we became innkeepers, we thought a lot about how we were going to manage guest dietary preferences.  While it sounded incredibly challenging before we started, we quickly learned that it’s an opportunity to expand your skills and get introduced to so many great recipes that you perhaps wouldn’t have considered otherwise.  Many of the most popular recipes that we serve to all our guests resulted from accommodating our gluten-free, keto, vegetarian, or dairy-free guests.  

For example, our low-carb sausage, egg, and avocado stacks were developed for some of our first lower-carb guests, and our blueberry baked oatmeal was for our first gluten-free guests. Now, we serve those to everyone!   Plus, we’ve learned that for most dietary preferences, a simple swap of one or two ingredients produces a dish with just as much flavor without having to develop a separate concept.  Our breakfast flautas are a perfect example!  Without too much extra effort, we can use corn tortillas for gluten-free and mushrooms and spinach instead of sausage for vegetarian or vegan.  Accommodating dietary preferences becomes a labor of love, and it forces you to become a better, more well-rounded, and more diverse cook or baker.

One of the major joys of cooking and baking for B&B guests is when you finally master your recipes, you have the mindspace and time to “fuss” and focus on the details.  Food comes in all sorts of shapes, textures, and colors, and playing with these elements is so much fun!  Our plates at the Andon-Reid generally follow the “rule of three,” and we have such a good time with color and texture in our presentation.  We’ve refined our side fruit plating considerably over the years, and we are always finding new ways to add color and texture to the dishes.  This is one of the main benefits of preparing all your ingredients and tools ahead of time.  You have time to arrange fruit in interesting shapes or add an element of crunch as needed.  Presentation also adds that little bit of extra evidence of care to a breakfast, that we know our guests appreciate.

If you’ve got folks sleeping in a bit in the morning, have no fear.  Just get some bacon in the oven and let the smell waft through the house.  We call it the "bacon alarm" and it works every time.  Oh, and definitely take the time to flip the bacon halfway through cooking.  It makes it come out nice and even, doesn’t curl, and renders the bacon fat more uniformly.

Every season brings new ingredients, new challenges, and new opportunities to grow. We love experimenting, refining, and discovering what works best in our little mountain kitchen. And we love sharing those lessons with the people who walk through our doors.  It’s nice to know that folks want to get our recipes over and over, because it signals that we are doing something right.  

Because at the end of the day, cooking is a craft, baking is a science, and both are made better by curiosity, humility, and a willingness to own your mistakes and “make it work” when things don’t go quite right.  We’ve learned that all those mistakes and all those hours only make things better.  Four years from now, it’s fascinating to think about what new lessons we will have learned and what new delights we will be able to produce for our Inn guests with new skills in hand.

See you soon at the Inn!

--Your Innkeepers,

Brenda and Peter

 

Photo Credit to the Asheville B&B Association