Carrington Wise sings the praises of her lemon tart.
The sweet-but-not-too-sweet tarts are one of the many items she bakes and sells at her business, Carrington’s Catering.
“When I was about 16, I was looking through my mother’s cookbooks — one of my favorite things to do — and came across a cookbook all handwritten in different peoples’ handwriting,” Wise says.
Her mother’s friends compiled recipes as a wedding gift. “This particular recipe jumped off the page at me. ‘Lemon tarts.’ And it just looked so fresh and lemony and tangy.”
Wise began baking the tarts. And people loved them.
Everything she makes has a certain criteria: “Everything has to taste good. So, these are recipes I have pulled together over the years. I do research, figure out what looks good to me, and the best way to do it. And then if that goes well and gets a good reception from my primary customers, that might go into my repertoire.”
Singing is another skill Wise also knows something about. She grew up around music in the Washington, D.C., area. Her father was a classically trained amateur musician. “We all took lessons, but what I remember growing up was that he would often invite people who were musicians who he knew some other way and we would have musical evenings.”
Wise, who “ended up being a singer,” performed baroque and contemporary songs. “These were art songs. As I grew up, I was often a guest soloist with an orchestra. It was usually a local orchestra or with a college.
“While a member of the Choral Arts Society of Washington, I sang under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Antal Dorati, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lorin Maazel, and others.”
She began teaching music after she got married. “I started children’s choirs wherever we lived.”
And, she adds, “Every one of them is still going.”
Wise continued teaching after she, her husband, and four children moved to Memphis around 2007. But she became dissatisfied with where she was working and decided she was going to stop teaching. She wanted another job, but she announced, “I don’t know what else to do.”
Her daughter, Margaret, had the solution. “She had noticed when I was in the dumps there were two things that would always pull me out of them. One was working with children, drawing them out, and the other was baking. So, I did that.”
It took about a year for Wise to figure out how to go about it. “I could see myself in a small bakery with awnings and flowers and it being this very inviting place. And decided against that because of having to man it. I didn’t have a place, either.”
So, she started her business in the Calvary Episcopal Church kitchen. “I was baking lemon tarts and pies and cookies. One of the first things were the sweet potato biscuits with country ham. It was mainly that sort of thing. And then I started adding scones, cheese wafers. That was a big thing. I didn’t want to do just sweets. I wanted to do some savory as well.”
People at church began buying her items. She also set up at the Downtown Memphis Farmers Market.
Now working out of Memphis Kitchen Co-Op & Marketplace at 7942 Fischer Steel Road, Wise sells at Agricenter Farmers Market and Graz’n Tables Charcuterie & Bakery Bar in Collierville.
“Our catering is for maybe up to 150 people. I don’t tend to do weddings, but I love to do the functions around the weddings. Like teas, showers, luncheons, and things like that. I also do box lunches. We cater dinners. Cocktail receptions are a big thing.”
And yes, she does sing — at times — in the kitchen. It can be Bach, Shubert, a bluegrass tune, or a folk tune her mother taught her. But, Wise says, “My voice bothers me. I don’t like the sound of it so much. Sometimes I will hum or whistle. I will sing in church. And some days I feel like I got it back. And the other times, no. Too much bravado.”
But, she confesses, “I almost named my business ‘With a Song in My Tart.’”
To order, text Wise at 901-481-4206 or email info@carringtonscatering.com.
