The survey revealed:
- 47% of chefs use long life cream to make Afternoon Tea items
- 65% of chefs said scones are their favourite Afternoon Tea sweet item
- The top three Afternoon Tea flavour trends are Floral, Asian, and Citrus
- Highly skilled items to create include Macarons, Laminated Pastry and Tempered Chocolate
- Keeping items identical and uniform is the leading challenge for working in miniature
Matt Owens, chair of the Craft Guild of Chefs, said: “There are many exciting innovations happening in afternoon tea menus right now. Whilst chefs continue to produce traditional items such as Victoria sponge cakes and scones, they are also crafting new modern flavours drawing on Asian and Middle Eastern influences as well as bringing in notes of floral and citrus.
“Creating an exceptional afternoon tea menu takes a high level of culinary skill. Working in miniature, creating perfect pastry, precision cutting, and the pressure of service is extremely challenging, however the results can be spectacular.”
The Lakeland Dairies’ chef survey showed scones are chefs’ favourite afternoon tea sweet item to enjoy (65%), followed by Mille-feuille (9%), and lemon drizzle cake (6%). It also found Chefs top three sandwich fillings are salmon and cream cheese, egg mayonnaise and beef and horseradish.
Jean Cattanach, marketing controller at Lakeland Dairies, commented: “Long life dairy is an excellent choice for pastry chefs due to its great taste and fantastic functional performance.
"The delicate and complex nature of afternoon tea menus requires not only a high level of skill from chefs, but incredible ingredients that deliver taste performance and quality, like our Lakeland Dairies high quality creams and butters, and Millac cream alternatives.”
To read the full survey click here: https://bit.ly/3QaOnnW.