I hadn’t planned to treat myself that afternoon, but I know how it happened: a long midday walk through Belgravia and Hyde Park had left my feet aching and my stomach growling. Plus, I had three more hours to kill before the evensong service at St. Paul’s. So what should I do? TripAdvisor had the perfect solution: afternoon tea at The Berkeley — tons of 5-star reviews (and $$$$, but passons…)! It didn’t take much to decide me: afternoon tea (sometimes mistakenly called “high tea” by us Yanks) is a favorite treat. So I booked a table and headed to the hotel.

The sweets

I wasn’t dressed for a fancy tea but in my tried-and-true, drip-dry, dirt-concealing black travel clothes and sneakers — functional but definitely not fashionable — and something I only mention because the theme of the tea, ironically, was Prêt-à-Portea. Head Pastry Chef Mourad Khiat had designed each of the sweets as tribute to a particular designer’s latest collection. They were gorgeous and exquisitely delicious, with surprising bursts of flavor. There were even special iced biscuits (a.k.a. cookies) — vanilla and chocolate — inspired by Meghan Markle’s wedding outfit (the royal wedding being only a few days off). This bounty, however, was the second course.

DIGRESSION: Some of the ingredients in this savory — in all the savories, in fact — were intriguing and mysterious. For example: even after tasting it, I couldn’t be sure that tête de moine was a kind of cheese, because it looked more like a flower or an exotic mushroom. I discovered that this is because, “[t]raditionally, the cheese is prepared for eating in an unusual way: the cheese loaf is carefully scraped with a knife to produce thin shavings, which is said to help develop scented flavours by allowing oxygen to reach more of the surface” (from The Red Cow website). You can even buy a special Swiss cheese scraper called a girolle for the low, low price of $95. Get yours today!

And sea purslane? It turns out to be first cousin to the familiar ice plant. Sea purslane grows along coasts all over the world and is important in dune creation, I discover. It’s also “a nice, salty, trail-side nibble,” and “a rich source of ecdysterone,” a chemical reported to “enhance athletic performance” in humans, according to the Eat the Weeds website. Who knew?

I ate slowly, savoring the flavors and textures of each item, and managed to finish all the savories. But by the time the second course arrived, I had already had an ample sufficiency, as my dad would have said. So I sampled only the two most perishable sweets — including a two-bite ice cream cone (white peach!)  — and the waitress kindly packaged up the rest into hexagonal lavender boxes for my dinner that evening. I managed to linger over my meal (and three pots of tea), until it was time to head over to the cathedral. Not surprisingly, awash in tea and caffeine, I scarcely slept that night. But no complaints: this treat was well worth it!

Here’s to the chef — and to all the artists whose works tickle our fancy,
delight our senses, and satisfy us in unexpected ways.
May they remind us of how much joy we can give when we share our creations.

Connections