The Luxury Travel Magazine
The Luxury Travel Magazine
The hotel has won copious awards, and has been recognised by the international travel and leisure industry as one of the Top 500 Hotels in the World. Although a magnet for business meetings, it also draws a wide range of local leisure-seeking clientele. The hotel’s head of marketing Jeff Rojas describes the Rosewood Sand Hill as ‘a modern clubhouse for Silicon Valley’, attracting multi-generational families to enjoy its 16 acres of lush grounds and its pool and spa facilities, as well as Stanford academics and the tech business community. Straddling these two worlds on the afternoon of my visit, I was joined for afternoon tea by a Stanford professor and an online course creator for business marketing.
Like Rosewood Hotels around the world, the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel prides itself on offering a memorable afternoon tea. Introduced two years ago, this is available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. While in the bar and on the shaded poolside terrace, earnest tech entrepreneurs are pitching their ideas to the local moguls, in the adjacent Madera Library a more genteel atmosphere pervades as guests and locals enjoy a full service traditional afternoon tea.
Even though Rosewood is a leading global hospitality brand, its Menlo Park establishment insists on supporting local start-ups, using fresh local produce whenever possible. In this location, that’s not difficult. Prior to the start of the tech revolution of the seventies and eighties, this fertile region was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight, home to vast orchards and fields of agriculture. It was the world’s largest fruit-producing and packing region, housing numerous fruit canneries.
The afternoon tea menu reflects its northern Californian location in several ways. Described as the Dandelion Chocolate Tea, named for the much-lauded San Francisco chocolatier, many of the menu items incorporate their outstanding chocolate. Dandelion Chocolate is a small-batch bean-to-bar chocolate maker which prides itself on creating single-origin dark chocolate from only two ingredients: cocoa beans and organic sugar.
The Rosewood’s executive chef Roman Petry created the Dandelion Chocolate Tea, and is particularly pleased with it. Even though he described himself as a German Anglophile, honing his culinary skills at Zuma in London’s Knightsbridge, as well as several Michelin starred restaurants around Europe, he defines the Rosewood’s afternoon tea as having a particularly Californian sensibility. “For afternoon tea, as well as all our dining options, we select our partners for their seasonal and fresh produce. We want to offer an essence of relaxing and taking a break. This is very important here in the cut and thrust of Silicon Valley. A lot of multi-million dollar deals have been done in these very rooms, creating the technological essentials that have shaped our lives.”
Dandelion’s chocolate crops up in many of the tea’s components, including cacao nibs used in the carrot cake and, partnered with candied lemon peel, incorporated into scones. The jam for the scones is even made from the gelatinous fruit of the raw cacao bean. Other sweet treats containing chocolate are a delicate take on the American favourite of gooey marshamallow S’mores, as well as a richer pannacotta. Since starting up in 2010 as a side project in a garage (very Silicon Valley!), the company has grown to six outlets in San Francisco, plus one at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
Continuing the Rosewood Sand Hill’s focus on local suppliers, the shiny outer coating on the chocolate canelés is made from local beeswax produced in Sonoma, just across the bay.
Leaving chocolate aside, there is plenty to tempt the palate in this tea offering, starting with its tea sandwiches served on a range of different breads.
Will we be offered traditional cucumber sandwiches in the hi-tech environment of Silicon Valley? This may concern you, but worry not. Chef Roman seasons his thinly sliced cucumber filling with a citrus flavoured labne and fresh mint on a pain de mie. The smoked salmon and cream cheese on rye is enhanced with fesh dill and pickled red onion. Further variety is supplied by Dungeness crab and avocado on wheat bread and a Coronation chicken with golden Californian raisins and cilantro on a walnut and currant bread. For those seeking vegan and gluten free options, these are available too.
All the teas are organic, and include several Chinese teas, as you would expect with the number of Asian visitors Silicon Valley companies regularly entertain. The English Breakfast blend is more delicate than the robust flavour Brits are used to, in line with the American taste for drinking tea without milk. And if your love of chocolate has not yet been sated, you can substitute a pot of tea or coffee with a cup of European Hot Chocolate provided by Dandelion.
As well as the standard Dandelion Chocolate Tea, there are seasonal tea menus for the festive Christmas season, Mother’s Day and other significant events throughout the year.
Hotel accommodation comprises 121 guest suites, ranging from the de-luxe room category up to the two-bedroom Presidential Villa. For guests who are looking for extended stays, enhanced privacy and the comforts of home, the hotel recently launched a prestige collection of five newly-renovated two or three bedroom Residential Villas. These feature a fully equipped kitchen, laundry facilities, and expansive gardens. offering the rare experience of a private estate within a fully serviced resort. Each of the villas is creatively designed to showcase a different aspect of Californian life, such as the local flora, vineyards or citrus groves.
Needless to say, as one would expect in the heart of Silicon Valley, all rooms at the Rosewood Sand Hill offer state-of-the-art in-room technology.
