Claridge’s tea sandwiches by Martyn Nail and Meredith Erickson

The luxury hotel reveals its five golden rules for perfect sandwiches, and shares a recipe for its cream cheese filling

At Claridge’s, we’ve been observing this delightful aspect of our nation’s culinary heritage for the best part of 150 years. For a century or more, all the executive chefs have remained faithful to the classic combination of finger sandwiches, scones served warm and sweet pastries, accompanied by a remarkable selection of the world’s finest loose-leaf teas. So we won’t stop now. We’re not providing sandwich recipes here, seeing as the two key aspects to a good sandwich are sourcing the products – the best-quality eggs, meat and breads – and cutting the sandwiches. Well, perhaps the cutting part is most key for us as we’re serving 180 people per day. The quality and freshness of the bread is paramount and should always be your first consideration. Picking different breads to pair with your fillings also gets exciting: rye, malt, granary, brown, onion, plain white ... these are just some of the breads we regularly use.

Claridge’s five sandwich rules
1 A sharp serrated knife is crucial for cutting sandwiches. You’ll need a knife with teeth that aren’t too large (these will tear the bread). Something like a Victorinox 26cm pastry knife is ideal.

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* This article was originally published here