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High tea, no sandwiches with Floursmith

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The Nugget
May 01, 2026

★ High tea, no sandwiches with Floursmith★

Meet Jess and Al Stanley, of Floursmith.

Jess and Al Stanley are serving high tea in the Old Muckleford schoolhouse this Mother’s Day weekend.

Do not expect sandwiches.

 It’s fancy. Pork belly en croûte fancy.

“I think when you're dining out, it should be special, and it should be something you can't make yourself at home,” Jess says.

“High tea has not been a feature of my life. I've come at it from my love of food and what I love to cook and bake. So, I guess that's why it is a lot more contemporary.”

The menu leans modern fine dining, but the setup is old world with antique china, flowers from a local farm and long shared tables.

Built in 1871 to serve the local farming and mining community, the schoolhouse is charming asd.

“We can fit 40 people in, just comfortably. It's a beautiful building with original sandstone brickwork, timber floors, huge windows. The ceilings are really high and there's a fireplace.”

There will be something sparkling on arrival, then tiers. Three savoury, three sweet.

Savouries include pork belly en croûte with nectarine hot sauce, brioche with chestnut and caramelised onion cream, and kohlrabi with whipped mascarpone and pickled fennel.

“The sweets are all a little bit savoury as well and very seasonal,” Jess says.

Jess is making fig leaf and coconut sponge, cumquat and rosemary madeleine, and salted dark chocolate polenta flatbread with olive oil and burnt honey.

“I’m a massive fig fan. We harvested all the figs from my fig tree at home.”

Jess didn't learn to make culinary magic the regular way.

Twenty-ish years ago, she was a graphic designer in Melbourne. After caring for her mum until she passed away, Jess decided to change everything.

“At the time, one of my clients was an architect who had bought land in Vaughan Springs for, like, $15,000. So I was like, hmm, I might look in that area.”

She bought land, built a house, then later discovered her family had long ties to Vaughan.

“Maybe that was why it felt like home to me.”

At first, it was quiet and lonely.

She set up a studio and shop in Daylesford and met Al — now her partner in both life and business (you may know him as the drummer in Bad Debts).

“It all worked out.”

They opened St Florian six months before COVID.

“Those were tricky times. We didn't think we were going to be able to even hold on to the business.”

They got through it with takeaway coffee through a window, while Jess taught herself pastry out the back.

“I had many, many failures and some successes. When we reopened, I had learned enough to be able to run service, but again, there were tears because service is hard to get your head around.”

Over time, things settled and Jess' obsession with pastry grew.

“The more I learn, the more adventurous I want to try and be… making something is either instantly gratifying or an instant failure. But you learn from that every time. 

Eventually, the café stopped making sense. There was too much overhead and not enough freedom.

On a trip to Scotland, when Al and Jess were trying to run St. Florian from afar, they called it. They were ready for something different.

Cue van life. The pair got themselves a custom teardrop caravan and prepared to hit the markets with their fabulous Floursmith pastries.

“Every week is different. We're starting to get into a good place where we're planning two to three months ahead.”

But markets didn’t entirely scratch the itch. Jess found she missed the full circle moment of serving a customer a dish she'd worked hard to perfect.

"That's really important to me because I'm in the kitchen on my own five days a week. With the high tea you get to sculpt the whole environment and I love that."

That’s the part she’s chasing now.

Over winter, Jess and Al will be travelling to old halls across Central Victoria, putting on pop-up bake shops and the occasional high tea like this one.

In a 150-year-old room, with food you’re very unlikely to make at home.

  • Floursmith’s High Tea at the Old Muckleford schoolhouse is sold out. If you are hoping to score a cancellation, sign up to their mailing list. They will email if more tickets become available

  • Follow Floursmith on socials to stay up to date on where they are popping up next

  • Peruse the menu and order direct

  • Follow Al’s band, Bad Debts for news about local gigs and their new album

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