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The hotel is 160 years old, and of course afternoon tea is an important part of that history. The Grand Hotel turned it into a special occasion, and the Langham was the first to serve it in 1865. Now this is considered something very high class. Afternoon tea was originally an intermediate meal between lunch and dinner. Pastries and sandwiches were usually small because the aristocracy did not want to get dirty while socializing, so they ate small, elegant portions. Right now they are still small because when people come for tea, they want more flavor and variety in what they eat. Five cakes, two scones, jams, cream. We usually serve about 120-130 tea parties, but sometimes up to 180-190.
We prepare 1,400-1,500 products every day. The role of the pastry chef is to make everything as good as possible, and we want the guest to leave the hotel with a great impression of our products. It's all very simple. Good morning. Welcome to London and, most importantly, to the Langham Hotel. My name is Andrew Gravett, I'm a pastry chef. It's about 7:30 in the morning and we're going to show you what we're doing today. Here is the original lobby of the Langham, I'll take you through the corridors, and we'll go down to the kitchen. This is our delivered to approximately 380 hotel rooms. We are in a smaller pastry shop where Over 100 places are booked for tea today. Scott,
Charlie, and Sheba are putting the finishing touches on the cakes, and later, around 2 o'clock, another shift will come in for the evening work. Now let's move on to making chocolate treats or candies. This is a chocolate ganache infused with Earl Grey tea, with the addition of special sugar and a layer of very high-quality chocolate on top. In this case, we use dark chocolate, melting it to a temperature above 50°. Inside there is a mechanism that cools the chocolate, and it comes out through this tube already at a temperature of about 31°. This is the tempering process. Traditionally, we do this on a marble table, but when we need so much chocolate, the machine helps a lot and saves us time.
Here in the machine, we have completely melted the chocolate, destroyed its temper, and during cooling and reheating, we rearrange the cocoa butter crystals so that the finished chocolate has a slight sheen and a characteristic crunch. So, they are ready. They will pass through this chocolate tunnel, where they will be covered in icing. A fan blows excess chocolate off the top, after which it falls onto this mat. Charlie will decorate them with cornmeal. The chocolate will set, and everything will be ready tomorrow. We use Manjari chocolate. These are cocoa beans from Madagascar. They have a pronounced fruity-sour taste.
You see, these little blue flowers are added to tea. We know it's Earl Grey chocolate because we might have four or five different kinds, and it's just a nice decoration. For a batch of 220 pieces, the machine will handle it in about 10 minutes . This is a technique that ensures consistency, as the coating is always the same, which means that two people can dip about 1,500-2,000 candies in an hour. Charlie will finish working with them. We go to the larger pastry kitchen to finish making the cakes for the Christmas tea party. Palm Court used to have a glass roof and we wanted the cake to be as white as possible, reminiscent of the snow in the conservatory. The idea was to have fruit or produce inside the cakes that could be grown in a Victorian
greenhouse. We have a bowl of egg whites that we will beat to make a very light sponge for the roll we are making. The air saturation makes the sponge cake light and slightly delicate in texture. The French have a recipe called "langue de chat ", meaning "cat's tongue". So, we made this mixture. We melted the butter. We added powdered sugar. We added flour with egg whites, and it gives us this dough-like consistency. Traditionally, if you bake this separately, it will have a very crispy texture, but we will spread this over the mat and then add the sponge mixture on top. The sponge cake itself would simply turn a caramel color on the outside. So, by adding this
ingredient, we will get something very white after baking. And, of course, by Christmas we will make between 180 and 200 of these cakes. In this recipe we have eggs, invert sugar. There is also oil here. The oil will give the cake a soft texture, but during baking, because it is oil, there is no evaporation. Next we have cornmeal and ginger. We removed the regular wheat flour. This will help us when we have a gluten allergy. So it just needs to be sieved to get rid of the lumps. So, the egg whites will now be ready. As you can see, they are very elastic. Quite springy. We will take some of the mixture. We will add it to the mixture of egg yolks and sugar. And let's just knock it down. We
mix everything at once, not in two stages. So, this is inside, and now we're going to add it all at once and then knead it out. This is the frozen mixture that we spread earlier. We'll just weigh the biscuit we put in. This is how we guarantee that our rolls will be the same thickness, taste, and made with the same amount of love every time. Okay, now let's level it. We calculated that a thickness of 230 g, evenly distributed across the mat, would give us the desired thickness. Okay, now it goes into the oven. 160 degrees, 8 minutes. We reduce the airflow a little, and that's it. Simply. Now
we will prepare plum compote. For me, this is the main part of the dessert. They are called watermelon plums because they have a skin like watermelon and a crunchy texture like fresh watermelon. They are actually extremely sweet and very tasty. The products we use in our cakes were grown in the same greenhouses. If we can return to Victorian ideas, but in a modern execution, we will try to do so. Here is the plum puree we made. We simply boiled them, pureed them until smooth, and then added chopped fresh plums. Thus, we get a feeling of crunchiness.
Now we will add the sugar and pectin mixture. This helps stabilize it, and it will set like jelly in our mold. We mixed it with sugar so that the pectin would dissolve much faster. So, this biscuit, as you can see, has caramelized on this side, so it has this color. And now we take it out of the mold and hope that it will be white on the bottom. That's it. Perfectly. So, we're going to pour our plum confit in here. We want to get this diameter of plum confit inside. And then we tap lightly to get all the air out. And then we'll send it to the next room at minus 30. We have a very light ginger syrup. It just adds extra power to the ginger in the cake. Then a very, very thin layer of cream.
I think the technique is how much butter I usually put on a cucumber sandwich. That's how we came up with the idea. This is a strict rule. Then everything is very simple, and the roll helps us because it already has the right shape. Here is the parchment to wrap it in. Then we just use a baking sheet and the roll is ready. We're going to freeze it. So, this goes into the freezer. We should get nine or ten servings out of it. It's about 9:30 now. It's time to go to a meeting with the pastry chefs. The team has been here for an hour, and we will discuss matters now. So, our team includes Bridget, a sous chef, who is responsible for the daily production in both kitchens. We have Oscar,
the youngest member of our team, a student. A fantastic colleague, Ashiq, whom Charlie loves to tease. Charlie Chipta, Scott, one of our comedians, the nicest among us. Lucky and I have been working together for almost 10 years. Sometimes we look at each other and act like aunt and uncle. So, this is the letter we receive every day. We are checking to see if there are any VIP guests. Very important to us are allergens and dietary needs. So, today Charlie and Ashiq will be doing afternoon tea. They will take this letter with dietary requirements. We have about 100 guests today. We have a 2 o'clock allergy, a 2 o'clock fish allergy, a couple vegetarians, so we need to check the gelatin for them.
Guests don't always tell us what they are allergic to. So we are holding two tea parties. We have a regular tea party where we can add any ingredients without worrying, and we also prepare tea parties that will be identical in design and suitable for vegans, gluten-free, nut-free and halal diets. This option should cover it all. If guests have additional requests, you may have to prepare a separate dessert especially for them. Lek, what kind of cream is that there? Leckie and Bridget will be working here. They will plan the work in the kitchen, and Bridget and I will make sure that both kitchens work harmoniously. I'll mostly be in this kitchen to get everything done.
We make 150 servings, right? Yes. This will depend on who is working and who is managing the different kitchens each day. We have about 100 orders, I wish you a wonderful day. Let's move on to making jam. This is the strawberry jam that we will prepare for the Serafina tea party. We will package it in jars and put labels on it. This is a staple product that we sell throughout the hotel. So, strawberries need to be sliced. The best time of year for strawberries in England is late May and June. So we have about 4-5 weeks when it's ideal to consume strawberries. This year we partnered with a farm in Kent and used their
strawberries for all our jams and products. We received the best British fruit from them during these 5 weeks. And we really saw a difference in product quality. Strawberry jam is a must. We tried to clean it up, but the guests just said, "No, leave the strawberry jam on the table." There are certain things that guests expect, and strawberry jam is one of them. We have already sliced the strawberries. We have sugar and glucose here. We added citric acid, pectin, and water. Now we will make syrup from this glucose and sugar. The pan is heated to 160 degrees. Therefore, it boils instantly. We simply dissolve the sugar and glucose in
water, which will give us the desired thickness before adding the fruit. Making the syrup in advance, instead of adding all the fruit at once, speeds up the process of cooking the fruit itself. Pour out the strawberries. Moisture will come out of the strawberries. So, it's still thick, but you'll see how quickly it will become thinner. Now we need to find out the percentage of sugar. Yes, we will use a refractometer. Let's check that it is 62 Brix, that is, 62 g of sugar per 100 g of mixture. So, the jam is ready. Let's start pouring it into a container. it. And here is our jam. Let's get back to business and put the jam in jars. The jars are hot from the oven,
their temperature is 120°, so they are sterile. White foam in a jar or on jam doesn't look very attractive. We'll just fill them in like this. You need to leave a little space on top, like my mother traditionally did. The air layer that was on top is now on the bottom, which means that air has passed through the jam and it has been pasteurized by the heat. Then they were turned back. But we don't want the jam to remain on the lid. When you open such a jam, you see that there is jam on the lid. This won't happen at our jams. It's a small thing, but important. Then we'll put them in the combi steamer for 20 minutes, and that's it. The jam is ready. Now we will prepare the scones. Every day we work a day ahead. Since yesterday, we have been
preparing what we call "crumbs." This mixture gives us fine crumbs. Then, when we add the liquid, we knead the dough well so that the gluten becomes elastic. Then, when baked, our scones will be as tall as we cut them, retaining their structure, but inside they will have a delicate texture, similar to a muffin, not a bread. Since the dough is ready, we knead it with our hands- this way we achieve better elasticity, and there are two of us because I'm old and I need help. So, Charlie will help us with this. I think without our machine it would be too aggressive, it would tear the gluten instead of maintaining elasticity. And since Charlie and I have tender and soft hands, we get exactly the elasticity we need for scones.
We prepare them around 9:10am, so they are almost warm when they go to be served. For me, a scone is a tool for serving cream and jam. If you make the texture successful so that it goes well with cream and jam, people don't need anything else. True. You see, when you press, you feel a slight elasticity. So, we'll put it in a rolling pin to make it flat before placing it on the baking sheet, and then chill it in the refrigerator before slicing. The butter will solidify again, so we will get a very even cut when we cut them. So then we'll put them in the fridge. The dough will harden, then we will cut it, and it will be ready to bake for tomorrow.
We baked several cakes. So, we want the edges to be white. Also, this is the raisin version, meaning it's a basic dough with raisins added. That's it. The scones are quite small, but we like the size and I think this way we can offer guests more than just one large scone. They break easily, hold their shape, are moist inside, very light, and actually taste great. We'll leave them to cool on a wire rack, then spread them out on a baking sheet, and they'll go up into the oven to heat up. This way, they will be barely warm. It's about 11:00 now. We go to Roldan, the fantastic sandwich maker, in our kitchen at Pump Court. So, this is Roldan.
He is our sandwich maker. Today he will prepare over a thousand sandwiches for guests. He comes in at 7:00, 7:30, does all the prep in the morning, then makes the filling, etc., so that everything is ready for the next day. Sandwiches usually have fairly traditional flavors. Cucumber with fennel, chicken, it seems, is now " Coronation". Bread, as you can see, is long slices. We can make about 9-10 sandwiches here. So it's salmon, fennel, spread, and then Roldan picks up his instrument. He will cut the sandwiches into 9-10 portions. How long have you been working here, Roldan? 11 years old. 11 years of cutting sandwiches every day. I don't think Roldan needs that. His sandwiches are almost always perfect without it. So, here's a
serving of chicken. She's on bread with paprika. Arugula and peppers are very tasty. And as you can see, he laid out all his sandwich layers. When he puts everything on the tray, he will start cutting them. So it works almost like an assembly line. He covers them with a towel so they don't dry out, then cuts everything up, trims the edges, packs them in boxes, and puts them in the refrigerator. It's funny, because in theory it's a simple thing, but the whole point is the pressure of the hand when he presses the sandwich, and the pressure of the knife. But it produces perfectly even cuts. He can do anything, but I always choose the cucumber. And when I come here, I often annoy Roland.
I ask if he has a new recipe with cucumber. And then just eat a cucumber. That's it. Roland is clearly on his way to finishing his sandwich work. I'll eat a cucumber sandwich. We're going to the kitchen. Now we will prepare a bear from lango. This is a compliment from the establishment that we give to many guests. Sometimes for each room, sometimes for a specific guest. In this case, we will turn him into a Santa bear. Previously, a chocolate machine would temper the chocolate for us. We need very little for the bear, so I temper it by hand. The chocolate is cooling on the table. We melted it to a temperature of over 45 degrees, and
now we are constantly stirring it to cool it. It always ends up being a mess at first. Your apron and table will be covered in chocolate when you're done. But with practice, you become more skilled and accurate. This is granite. The heat of the chocolate on such a surface is evenly distributed through the granite. I left some chocolate in the bowl to warm up again to 28-29 degrees. This is exactly the temperature at which it can be poured into molds. You need to let out excess air. The excess will drain away. And we will make this bear in two layers. We'll just let the excess chocolate drip off. As for the teddy bear, you know, we've had it for quite a while now, so guests often ask if they'll get the same teddy bear when they come back next year?
We often give children at the hotel a teddy bear. That's where this initial idea came from. It's like a childhood memory. I think many people can identify with owning a teddy bear. He had been frozen for about a couple of hours. So we're going to take it out of the mold. Let's see if we can get it out. I hope it works out. And this is a heated table. It melts only the edges of the chocolate, allowing us to glue them together. Now the bears are glued together. We'll just melt the paws. And then we'll attach them to the steps. So, the base of the bear is ready. What we did here: sprayed white chocolate using a compressor gun. We saw it on the step. This gives a kind of snow effect at Christmas. The bear's body was covered in red chocolate dust. This
will be the basis of the Santa Claus costume. And here we have small details. I hope he comes to life and looks like Santa Claus. So, Bridget, you're going to come up and do it. Bridget is the designer of this Christmas bear. It will be fixed with tempered chocolate. We call it plastic chocolate. It's a mixture of chocolate and glucose melted together and left to set, giving us a pliable texture from which we can sculpt whatever we want, however we want, and wherever we want. By Christmas, I think, by early December, we will have almost 400 pieces lined up, and we will go through this process with all of them. It will look like a factory line and all the tables will be lined with teddy bears. So while Bridget finishes the work, it will be ready for the room
where we will take it later. Chris is in charge of the room service department. We're just checking how Christmas presents will look in the suite. We just make sure he is satisfied and we will act on his instructions. We continue his day. This is Stefan, our hotel managing director, he came to check on us, walking through the corridors. I'm being polite today, chef. Thank you very much, Andrew. It's very nice to see you here today. This is Alberto. He is our window washer at the hotel. So, he cleans.
Well, if there are 380 rooms, plus restaurants, plus everything else, guess how many rooms he cleans in a day? Many. The happiest person in the hotel. Thank you. So, we'll go down to the Palm Court kitchen, where the chefs are just preparing a tasting of one of the savory dishes for Christmas. Let's have another dish. Let's have a third course. Yannis is the hotel's chef. And, oddly enough, we worked together 20 years ago. We were young, we were beautiful. And he is not. I am not. Yannis comes, advises something sweet, expresses his opinion,
and sometimes we complement each other. This is a nice simple dish made with very high-quality ingredients. The main course can be very rich, so we will make the dessert lighter and fresher to balance the taste. People feel comfortable when they leave, but at the same time they have had a delicious meal. Thank you. It is about four o'clock now. We are currently preparing the final presentation of the dessert we will be serving for Christmas. So, here are eggs, sugar, yuzu juice, and all of this needs to be brought to about 85 degrees. It's simple: is it delicious? Does it look the way we want it to? But most importantly-does it taste good? Does it have the right texture, is it creamy enough?
This may vary depending on what we are cooking at the moment. So, quick mixing, this will make the cream more tender. That's all. Done. We will cover tightly with cling film so that a skin does not form on top in the refrigerator So, that's it for 3 days. This is called whipped ganache. Cream with white chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, which we whip with cream. We boiled it with glucose and invert sugar. Then add cold liquid cream to this mixture. And after a few hours in the fridge, we get this texture. Here is the meringue. We made a recess so that the yuzu cream could fit in it.
We use this as glue to keep it from sliding around on the plate. So, we put the yuzu cream in the recess. Quickly level. The whipped ganache is back in the pastry bag. So, we just put it like this. Then we add this-these are small candied lime zest pieces. So, they were just put in a light syrup made from glucose, sugar, and lime juice. So, it's lime wedges, fresh wedges, a little lime zest, and then little white chocolate decorations. They go well with whipped ganache. And we want the dessert to look very light and airy. So here are some very light decorations and some meringue crumbs on top. We'll add sorbet here. And that's it. The dessert is ready.
Bon appetit. Thank you for visiting Langham. It was very interesting. Today we have a busy change. We have several events and restaurant services. So some of us have to work. Thank you very much. Have a nice and delicious evening.
