Rest, Relax & Relais

National Post, Friday, Jun. 4, 2010

Usually when I arrive for an interview, my subject finds me a two-legged stool to sit on and, if I’m really lucky, a glass of room temperature tap water. Not so at Langdon Hall Country House Hotel & Spa, a Relais & Chateaux property in Cambridge, Ont.

Instead, here I am, taking my ease on a bench at a table under a linen umbrella, sharing a chilled bottle of Huff Estates sparkling wine and crabmeat and caviar canapés with owners William Bennett and Mary Beaton. An extra pillow is placed behind my back to ensure I’m at my peak of comfort, while my glass of water is refilled every few moments, seemingly by an invisible breeze. It’s this sort of hospitality that gets me wondering what the Relais & Chateaux designation really means.

Before I came for my weekend visit, my editor thought membership in Relais & Chateaux was about the food, while a friend of mine thought it had something to do with the wine. I thought it was all about the recognition that a property met certain international deluxe standards — and in a way were all exactly right and we were all exactly wrong.

“Relais & Chateux was well known in Europe, but when we started here [20 years ago] there were only eight properties in North America,” says William Bennett. Now there are 80, all part of a collection of 475 of the world’s finest hotels and restaurants spanning 55 countries. “The basis of Relais & Chateaux are the five Cs,” he further explains, “Character, calm, comfort, charm and cuisine. And those, basically, are the quality standards that you have to meet in order to be a member.”

Bennett says that it’s not like the AAA, where you have a numerical rating, and there’s a big binder of quality standards and checklists to be met. Instead, “it’s about the welcome you receive, and the generosity you feel.” It seems to be more akin to inn-keeping than being an hotelier. And it’s about a sense of place above all else. “Some of it is emotional, some of it is the setting, the views. It’s not on a checklist.”

The cuisine is another big draw. Chef Jonathan Gushue, whose kitchen at Langdon Hall recently made the list of Restaurant magazine’s Top 100 restaurants in the world, tells me, “I think the idea is that it’s a group of very individual properties that meet a certain standard.” I tell him I’ve stayed at several Canadian R&C properties, including the Wedgewood Hotel and Spa in Vancouver, Tofino’s Wickanninnish Inn and the Inn at Manitou (which, sadly, just closed its doors) and have enjoyed each immensely, yet for different reasons. “I think that’s exactly what I find most impressive about the membership,” says Gushue. “They encourage people to be different. Each property has its own personality, which I think is really rare.”

I am at Langdon Hall on a co-birthday weekend with my friend Tamara. After a full afternoon tea service in our room, some light reading by the pool and massages at the spa, we sit down to a blind tasting menu in the restaurant - blind because we are entirely in Gushue’s hands. Around us there are tables of honeymooners and anniversary celebrants, plus larger groups getting together for weekend fun. I see $400 jeans and $1,000 suits, along with breezy summer dresses.

Earlier, the chef had told me, “the property dictates the menu to me,” as it is based on what surrounds him: “The morels, black walnuts, the apple orchards. Wild leeks, ginger and garlic. The wild flowers and the herbs.” And they all find their way into our unforgettable dinner, which Tamara rates as the best she’s ever had. (It’s definitely in my top five as well.)

The food is creative without being unwieldy - nose-to-tail without being scary. Chilled white asparagus gets a pine mushroom crumble. Atlantic lobster is poached in Langdon’s own butter, the plate scattered with earthy bites of ramps, cocoa and even cockscombs. Another course boasts wild asparagus, fiddleheads, confit duck gizzard and asparagus velouté. Never had a smoked bone marrow beignet? Well then you don’t know what you’re missing. Every plate looks like a gift and tastes like a dream.

Next day, I pull open the curtains, swing the windows wide and morning greets me with searing sunshine and birdsong. Tamara, an early riser, wanders back into the room. “I went down to grab a coffee and read the paper,” she tells me. “I sat near the front of the main building, where a nice silver coffee tray was set up. But then the maitre d’ came over and asked me, ‘Can I interest you in the perfect spot to read your paper?’

He took Tamara over to the conservatory, which is full of natural light and overlooks the lovely frog pond. And then he said, “If I had a little extra time, this is where I would read.”