Dan appeared promptly, and we made our way to the Mirror Room. Soon he introduced me to Rosewood partner and Holborn Dining Room Executive Chef Calum Franklin, who launched into an intimate explanation of each pastry as it was presented. Calum is a firm believer in knowing the provenance of ingredients, so as to ensure the freshest and most unique additions in the overall menu lineup.
Rosewood’s Art Afternoon Tea was the brainchild of talented Executive Pastry Chef Mark Perkins. Not your standard offering, this avant-garde interpretation touted a few unusual surprises inspired by an international cross section of five talented, recognized modern artists who have all contributed to London’s extraordinarily vivid art scene—American artist Jeff Koons, who loves to transpose commonplace disposable pop culture objects into mirror-finished stainless steel; French fantasist Hubert le Gall; Russian theorist Wassily Kandinsky, a master of vibrant artworks; American abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, known for drip painting, a technique that coincidentally lends itself well to chocolate applications; and finally, anonymous British-based graffiti artist Banksy.
