Dine like a 19th-century aristocrat: Michel Roux recreates luxury of another age at £350 a head
One of London's leading chefs is hosting an "antique banquet" recreating the surroundings of an aristocratic London dining room two centuries ago.
Two Michelin-starred Michel Roux Jr has teamed up with some of London's leading antiques dealers who are donating £2 million of furniture, crockery and silverware for the night.
All profits from the £350-a-head dinner in the private dining room at the Langham Hotel's Roux at the Landau restaurant will go to the Standard's Dispossessed Fund.
The 20 diners will eat off late 18th century and early 19th-century tables worth up to £200,000. They will be decorated by silverware such as £15,000 Georgian wine coolers.
The most expensive items on display will be a pair of Regency ormolu mounted mahogany side cabinets worth about £500,000 made for Windsor Castle in 1810. The food will be eaten off a £70,000 Georgian dinner service made by porcelain specialists Flight Barr and Barr in about 1825 and a dessert service that was in Princess Diana's family for generations.
Roux, chef de cuisine at Mayfair's Le Gavroche and a Masterchef judge, is also running the London Marathon for the Dispossessed Fund in April.
He said: "I consider myself a Londoner and I consider it the duty for all Londoners to put something back. I just hope we're not going to get any breakages."
The menu, a starter of poached salmon with hollandaise sauce, followed by corn-fed chicken casserole, praline ice-cream bombe and British cheeses, was inspired by a Victorian menu found in the Langham's archives. It has been devised by Roux and his protégé Chris King, chef de cuisine at the Landau.
Simon Phillips of Mayfair antique dealers Ronald Phillips said he would not lose any sleep over possible damage. He said: "All furniture's functional. It has survived 200 years and will survive another night."
Anyone wishing to book one of the 20 places on Wednesday March 30 should call 020 7965 0165 or email reservations@rouxatthelandau.com
