Afternoon Tea Goes Hollywood

The Maybourne Beverly Hills has built its second Prêt-à-Portea collection around the awards season circuit, and the premise is exactly what it sounds like. Executive Pastry Chef Brooke Martin has spent considerable time studying red carpet photographs and translating the year's most talked-about celebrity looks into a full afternoon tea's worth of couture-inspired pastries. It shouldn't work as well as it does.

Martin's answer to Timothée Chalamet's butter yellow Givenchy leather suit from the Oscars? A lemon biscuit dressed in whipped royal icing. Sabrina Carpenter showed up to the Grammys in a baby blue JW Anderson gown with ostrich feathers and a 50-carat Chopard diamond necklace plunging down an extremely low-cut back, and Martin's response to that particular look is a vanilla meringue pavlova with milk chocolate cremeux and Earl Grey caramel. For Ariana Grande's Schiaparelli bustier from the Oscars, all 190,000 sequins of it, and a clear nod to Glinda's bubble dress in Wicked. There's an exotic baba with coconut-soaked cake, white chocolate rocher, and lychee cream. Each one makes a kind of sense once you see it.

Taylor Swift showed up to the Grammys newly engaged, in a Chiefs-red Vivienne Westwood mini dress, with six nominations in tow, and that gets rendered as a vanilla chiboust with tart cherry compote and laminated pie crust. Jenna Ortega's darkly glamorous gem-encrusted Givenchy bodice from the Emmys, all crystals and pearls and barely-there structure, becomes an espresso mousse with coffee praline, dulcey chocolate, and gianduja gems. And then there's Strong's teal velvet suit with the matching bucket hat and sunglasses, which he kept on the entire night at the Golden Globes and which earned its own bit from Amy Poehler during the broadcast. That one gets the vanilla sablé. Understated. Correct.

The whole thing takes place in the Terrace Tea Room, which features baby-blue tufted banquettes, soaring ceilings, and a hand-painted mural. Service follows the traditional progression: a selection of hot or iced teas, tea sandwiches, scones, and savory bites, all arriving on Bernardaud pink-and-white striped china. Then the pastry collection comes out on a three-tiered platter, and the afternoon gets noticeably more interesting. Worth noting: nearly everything is gluten-free, with the scones and sandwich bread available gluten-free upon request as well.

For anyone wondering how this concept came to be in Beverly Hills, Prêt-à-Portea has been running at The Berkeley in London for nearly two decades, showcasing collections that have covered the Queen's handbags, Iris Apfel's wardrobe, and just about everything in between. The Maybourne Beverly Hills brought it stateside in early 2025, with a first collection that included Björk's swan dress and Lupita Nyong'o's pearl-embellished Calvin Klein gown. 

The second collection, unsurprisingly, feels right at home in a city that treats awards season the way other places treat national holidays. The only real question is why it took this long.

Prêt-à-Portea: The Red Carpet Collection 2025 is offered Fridays through Sundays, with seatings from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Adults: $140; children 12 and under: $65. Reservations at maybourne.com or 310-860-7800.