About

Hi! I’m Marissa

I am so happy you are here!

I love tea and all the yummy food that goes along with a good cup of tea.

My husband and I live in a small town in Australia. We moved here about 20 years ago from Paris. Yup, we moved from the center of Paris, to a small town about 3 hours from Melbourne.

I found my love of tea here in Australia. I hate to admit it, but I used to be a coffee drinker and never drank tea. And then a good friend introduced me to chai tea and I never looked back!

I should add that I have four boys (now grown) and I think making tea and enjoying tea with other mothers was one of the ways I managed in a very boy filled house.

My family

My own parents came to the U.S. as refugees from Latvia. I grew up speaking Latvian at home and eating lots of traditional Latvian food.

My mother and my grandmother were great cooks and always let me help with the cooking and baking. Many of my recipes for small tea sandwiches, cakes and cookies are from my mother and grandmother.

I went to college in the U.S. and then went to France, where I met my husband, Francois. I loved the food in France and slowly learned to cook some beautiful French cakes, pastries and pies (I was also trying to impress my new husband just a little bit – and he was very patient with my “experiments”).

About TeaRoomDesign

I wanted to have a place to share my love of tea and my recipes for cakes, pies, pastries and cookies and everything else that makes tea parties and drinking tea so enjoyable. Many of my sweet recipes are French inspired – mostly from my mother-in-law who was a wonderful cook.

And many of my tea sandwich recipes are inspired by my Latvian heritage. My mother and grandmother would often put together an “aukstais galds” (literally cold table), which was essentially a cold buffet, consisting of many different small sandwiches, salads and finger foods.

I have also lived in the UK and Germany and now in Australia, so you will find some recipes and ideas from all these different countries and cultures.

I look forward to hearing from you.