Afternoon Tea at The Langham, London | Britain's Most Luxurious Hotels | Channel 4 Lifestyle

as the hotel emerges from lockdown reopening its bars and restaurants is key to driving up occupancy and there's one area in particular that nick wants to bring back to life afternoon tea served in the palm court getting afternoon tea up and running in the hotel is crucial palm cord is the heart and soul it's the center of the building the langham was the first hotel to serve afternoon tea in 1865. today a champagne tea costs 83 pounds per head nick is hoping that relaunching it with a nostalgic british menu will satisfy his boss's desire to market the hotel's history we've got a two-week window to get from the concept to the delivery which is hugely tight and it's going to be a lot of blood sweat and tears and a lot of ideas in the window out the window and working towards that but it is something that we definitely need to make happen because the tea is the vital part of the jigsaw of making the langham back open and successful [Music] with no time to waste until the big relaunch executive pastry chef andrew ravitt is preparing for a tasting with michelle rue jr who oversees all the language menus if we take the really strong vanilla cream pipe it in here and we put the sponge on and we see how it's tasting for me getting the afternoon tea back in the langham is key not just for morale but for the langham itself and all our guests they want the afternoon tea this lovely ceremony of coming into such a beautiful building like the langan the smell as you walk in this this sort of warmth and friendliness and then you sit down and you just have the most amazing experience you know i i this was the birthplace of afternoon tea but we have to get it right andrew's been busy experimenting at the heart of the new afternoon tea concept is a very special set of pastries we're going on the idea of the classic british biscuits one that we've liked as kids or certainly i've liked as kids and he's very hopeful for his favorite childhood snack the custard cream i guess the idea of putting a biscuit that we can buy in it we can buy a 50 pack of these biscuits in the shop um we're putting them on a five-star afternoon tea yeah maybe the concept is a bit crazy the plate's ready for chef roo to taste and we'll look forward to his comments there can't be any errors or mistakes let's face it we're putting dishes in front of michelle jr that's big i mean we don't want to look like a bunch of idiots and amateurs so you know andrew's reputation he wants it to go well bring it on chef what have we got so the theme obviously is british um so we thought of the idea of playing on the british biscuit um so we've now we've decided from a range of x amount of biscuits we've got it down to four the chocolate digestive the ice gem the fig roll and finally the custard cream um the custard cream is my favorite biscuit um you can buy a packet for 23p for 15 biscuits and you can eat them in less than half an hour if you're in the mood i've never done it but it's all the guys in the kitchen they do it um but we've poshed up the custard cream we've five-starred it i get it but people from overseas who have never had a chocolate digestive how how are we gonna get that message to them so on the menu we've got sketches of the original biscuits there will be a written paragraph of what we've done basically but the custard cream is our i think it's i think it's the winner of the selection right i'm going in oh my god that's amazing just the right things oh my god could you give me a packet of them they'll be more expensive than 23p [Laughter] oh my blood well done andrew honestly i think that is that is a serious winner good thank you big challenge today is to make sure everyone understands and leaves this room ready for tomorrow it's the day before the afternoon tea is launched and staff are coming back after nearly six months on follow to that training day the best way to train colleagues is that everybody goes and tries and experiences the new menu for themselves because only once you have tasted it you smelled it you sensed it then can you talk with passion about it i'm back today after six months of furlough coming back to be the host of the palm court i've never felt so good i woke up with the biggest smile on my face i have a lot to learn today i wish we had a bit more time so i'm feeling nervous however i'm so happy to be back that the nervousness is put to the side to learn as much as i can oh my gosh look who it is hello everyone we'd love to give you hugs but we're just an air hug like this come and take a seat come take a seat andrew and the afternoon tea service team have just one day to learn the new afternoon tea concept um all of the teas that you're going to have on your menu will be single garden tea so they've all been selected on the basis that they're from one specific origin but within that origin one specific garden and then they have the taste of that garden so the cakes that we've done trying to work with less fat when you've eaten it you're satisfied but you're not feeling you need to go for a run andrew and his colleagues need to memorize the stories ingredients and origins and all the elements that make up the lion's afternoon tea [Music] the service team really needs to understand that concept and in their minds work out how do they portray that to the guest the cheese gun is coming with butter from ivy house farm which is golden yellow and the cheese gun is square yeah so don't mix it up with the rounds guns that are sweet oh wow they're tasting four sandwiches two different types of scones four pastries a tart three sparkling wines and eighteen single garden tea there's nothing worse than going to an establishment and sitting there and someone puts something in front of you and you ask one simple question and the team member goes i don't know you know we've got to believe in it we've got to understand it and we've got to be passionate about it we are that place the afternoon tea started so it is vital that we get it right tomorrow is a really big day for us and it is really being upbeat and enthusiastic um even with mass you use your smiles and your raising eyebrows and all that sort of thing and really sell this well okay really exciting day the home of afternoon tea reopening again better stronger [Music] palm court opening and doing the afternoon tea is like reigniting the life and the soul of the hotel yesterday we had a number of fellow staff come back there's a lot to take in i am sure some of them didn't sleep last night very much with doris coming on board this is her first experience of our afternoon tea very excited to see what will happen this afternoon afternoon tea at the langham it is crucial to us it is who we are the vibe and the bus it brings back to the hotel plays an important role to also send a message that we are back up and running and and we have to get it right but after six months off work andrew is feeling the pressure of serving 55 discerning guests their 83 pound champagne teas [Music] i am feeling a bit nervous today trying to remember everything we've learned yesterday having greater guests in a long time it's a lot to take in in the kitchen pastry chef andrew runs a tight ship on the typical service his team produces over 500 scones and more than a thousand pastries today the challenge is even greater as 16 of his pastry chefs are still fallen normally overall in the pastry in the hotel there's 20 chefs and six of those will be daily working on afternoon tea in the current climate we're four for everything in the hotel um so it puts pressure on everybody we're stretch but we're pretty organized so it seems to be under control [Music] afternoon everyone so today uh we've got 55 guests coming in for affluent tea very important first day afternoon tea we don't want it to go wrong we can do this right fantastic thank you very much guys hello ladies welcome all three lovely i lived away oh the room looks great doesn't it this is lovely so is this a new menu for today as well especially yeah so sending honey i mean friends palm court host andrew must present the afternoon tea concept to tv presenter gloria hunford and friend did you love me i know but i just i can't speak i just don't i keep on losing my words so in that card i can't good afternoon hi welcome back to the home of afternoon oh i love it thank you as you can see we are focusing on a new concept of afternoon tea today and what is the new concept we're focusing on the love the tradition for the british heritage for afternoon tea biscuits yes so we've taken some classic biscuits we've toasted them a bit however they do remain very classic very british we have reduced their sugar and fat as much as possible so we're trying to focus on the taste of these biscuits well i have to tell you i'm a very good guinea pig i swear you know what though i'm going to be so boring i'm going to have english breakfast tea isn't that awful absolutely fine you're going to have and i'm going to have green tea thank you very much thank you very much see you later [Music] away on 202 please 104 pastries are ready here we go 104. [Music] hey stefano you come with goodies chris you know how to tempt the ladies don't you wow lovely oh they're so delicate aren't they so this is like the custard cream yum that is nice you can't beat a custard cream knowing me and i'm carrying them all down here [Music] it's nice for us to get together like the food it was lovely like for you first time i've never experienced an opportunity so it was absolutely amazing ladies it's been a pleasure it was so nice it has been so amazing it's the best thing we can hear it's lovely to hear that thank you very much take care thank you i wish you could see the smile it's right there thank you coming back to work today when the room was filled up for the first time after six months it's been a bit of a pressure on all of us but i think once table sat down we got into our groove into our moods it's been amazing it's been an amazing service thank you ladies hope everything was well take care thank you after months of uncertainty the first afternoon tea service has come to an end [Music] a jolly good afternoon and a huge from the bottom of my heart thank you and congratulations on relaunching our afternoon tea this afternoon the hotel is finally back alive it is just incredible to see i was walking in the lobby earlier and i saw rashidawa concierge smiling from one ear to the other he says doris this is how the hotel used to be and it's back so huge congratulations to all of you the one man though i really want to say a huge thank you is you nick you kept the team together you took us the last couple of weeks me the newbie having to be educated couldn't have done it without you and i'm eternally grateful but the most beautiful thing was to see many many smiling faces today so congratulations and let's have a drink you're here cheers everyone well done cheers thank you to reopen the palm core and have afternoon tea is super special it's amazing to see the team back with a spring in their step and they're really excited to be back and now it is taking that excitement and just keeping it going now and really pushing the hotel forward seeing it alive is just a great feeling and onwards and upwards as you say

Channel: Channel 4 Lifestyle

Views: 1,029,051

Keywords: Channel 4, Channel 4 Living, All 4, Hotels, Food

Id: K4I3W6alPbg

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021