Tate's Bake Shop: Southampton's Award-Winning Cookies
Tate's Bake Shop is a nominee for a Luxist Readers' Choice Award in the Best Cookie category.
This nomination will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever tasted the signature cookie of one of the country's leading independent bakers.
The company was founded by Kathleen King, who has been baking professionally since she was eleven. Born and raised on North Sea Farms in Southampton, she started to baking cookies to earn spending money. Packaged simply at first, Kings' cookies came in plastic bags with twist ties.
By the time King was in high school, she was baking 12-hours a day, and perfecting her thin, crisp, buttery and caramel tasting chocolate chip cookies. She was so successful, her baking put her through college: SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, New York. When King was 20, she opened her first bakery and within one year she had made a name for herself in the fashionable communities on the south fork of Long Island.
Twenty eight years later, King is still baking and her award-winning cookies are made fresh daily with no artificial ingredients. Her signature cookie style is thin, buttery and crisp (the chocolate chip cookies continue to be a favorite), but Tate's also makes chewy varieties as well as coffee cakes, fruit bars, muffins, pies, scones and breads. Many of King's recipes have been published in her book: Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook (St Martin Press, $24.95). The book catalogues King's no nonsense approach to cooking which has made her a favorite among bakers-from amateurs to pros.
Tate's Bake Shop is named after King's father who still operates the North Sea Farm where she was raised. Her cookies, muffins, and cakes are sold throughout the United States as well as by mail order. Be sure to check out the site, as King shares a new recipe monthly on her website with friends and fans.
These days when you tell someone that you are going to the Hamptons for the weekend, they are almost certain to ask, "Bring me back something from Tate's".
Vote for the company you believe makes the best cookies. Readers' Choice Winners will be announced on March 1st.
