Welcome to the Langham Pastry Kitchen!
Given how crazy this past week has been, I'm a little surprised I have the energy to put together a blog post. But I'm so proud of the work my pastry team has put out in their opening of the hotel, that I just had to share some of the space 0f the brand new Langham Hotel Chicago!I have never been a part of something like a hotel opening before. Coming from the school I taught at previously, I thought I knew the meaning of being spoiled, given the abundance of top quality ingredients, equipment and toys (nerd pastry toys like a tempering machine, not actual toys like G.I. Joes). But starting a kitchen from scratch with the financial backing of an international brand is next level! EVERYTHING IS NEW. It's like perpetual Christmas, except some of your presents are contingent on budget restrictions. And Santa is Edward Don. And you have to pay him. Other than that, straight up Xmas.
My team, who I feel very lucky to have, loaded up and into this kitchen in a matter of a few quick days and got to cranking out product like they'd been working together for years.
And what's not to love about the space? It's fairly small for the size of the operation, but what I love is while there's space for everything we need, there's not an inch of extra space, and that keeps us functioning as a highly efficient and clean kitchen!
Short of being able to design it myself (which I did not, equipment was decided on before I arrived on the scene) this is a dream come true, creating a fully functioning kitchen from nothing!
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| The early days of loading into the kitchen. |
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| Matt performing one of the many glamorous tasks associated with a hotel opening. |
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| My love of label makers and organizing represented here in a perfect storm of efficiency...thanks to my Sous Chef, Katie. |
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| Our chocolate room. Yes, chocolate room. Still very much a work in progress, but a healthy start. |
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| Nothing but chocolate and chocolate byproducts. Awesome. |
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| Pastry team in action! |
Can't wait to show off some of the pastry team's work!
Cheers,
S
