Two Decades of Langdon Hall Country House
by Malcolm Jolley

Bill Bennett, Mary Beaton and friend at Langdon Hall

On September 17, 1989 Langdon Hall Country House opened its doors to the public under the management and ownership of Mary Beaton and Bill Bennett. Or, we think it did. Sitting in a quiet patio corner near the hotel's luxury spa complex and overlooking a 100 year old apple orchard, Beaton and Bennett aren't entirely sure of the exact date. "We'll have to look it up in the guest books," Bennett says with a smile and a shrug. While the grand old country house hotel and restaurant held a blow out anniversary party in July, the Beaton-Bennett team has been too busy managing the Relais & Chateau to give the actual date much thought.

In fact, Beaton and Bennett have been busy at Langdon since 1987 when architect-turned-hotelier Bennett decided to parlay the success he'd had developing the Millcroft Inn in Caledon into an ambitious new venture, based on the high standards of European country house restaurants and hotels. He and his wife and business partner Beaton considered a number of Canadian locales including the Van Horne estate on Minister's Island in New Brunswick and a few spots around Niagara. But Bennett had done some architectural work previously in Cambridge, which was conveniently on the way to Stratford and its theatre festival from Toronto. He knew about Langdon Hall, a country mansion built for a member of the Astor family, Eugene Langdon Wilks that was just off the 401. A scheme to convert the mansion and its surrounding 30 acres of gardens, lawn and woods into a retirement home had gone sour and Beaton and Bennett managed to buy it.

Nearly two years and many hurdles overcome later, Langdon Hall welcomed its first guests: then Premier David Peterson and a council of economic advisors constituting the leaders of the provinces biggest companies and firms. So far so good. On the second day, just after the VIP guests had been served breakfast, Langdon Hall's new, and young English chef, Nigel Didcock interrupted a meeting Beaton and Bennett were having with a worried look on his face and a request to speak to Bennett privately.

"We were actually meeting with our bank to try and get another line of credit," explained Beaton.

"To cover some of the overruns in construction," added Bennett.

Didcock could barley conceal his concern, Bennett recalled, and told him quickly that there was a fire in the kitchen. Bennett wasn't overly concerned at first, figuring a pot had caught fire and could be extinguished easily. "Then Nigel explained that it was actually the kitchen that was on fire," he said.

Sure enough, when Bennett got to the kitchen, there was smoke coming out from the wall behind the stove. Bennett called the Cambridge Fire Department and asked them not use their sirens on account of the Premier and VIP guests. "I also told them not to mind the protestors," he said.

"Oh that's right," exclaimed Beaton, "I had forgotten about the protestors. This was over the logging in Temagami. They had set up a camp on the lawn and were planning to present the Premier with some sort of mock award. That meant that there were reporters and TV crews there, too, which was all we needed as our kitchen burned."

As it turned out, the cause of the smoke was a smouldering piece of wood that had fallen behind the drywall behind the stove and was easily removed by the firemen, Didcock and his team cleaned up and served dinner that evening, and the story of Langdon Hall's rebirth as one of Canada's top hotels and restaurants continued.

This past year, as if in celebration, Langdon Hall's celebrated chef Jonathan Gushue won the designation of Grand Chef for himself and the restaurant. A very big deal, he shares the honour with such international culinary titans as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Michel Troisgros and Heston Blumenthal. Bennett is, in fact, the President of the Canadian chapter of the prestigious organisation of hotels and restaurants, which includes many of the worlds' Michelin-starred haunts. "These designations are important for us and the staff, it gives everyone something to be proud of and strive for," Bennett explained. Beaton, a hospitality industry veteran, explained that they continually tour Relais & Chateau properties looking for ideas, and have always insisted on hiring top professional managers to ensure the highest level of service. Bennett said he knew they were on the right track in the first year when a guest thanked them for saving her 24 hours. When he asked what she meant, she explained that previously she would have had to fly to Heathrow and then spend several hours on a train to find a comparable country house experience. The hour from downtown Toronto seemed like nothing.

I asked if they had trouble finding qualified staff in Cambridge, and she said no: "We have always hired on attitude. You can tell some people are just good at service. You can always train them on the specifics." Does that include rowdy guests, I wonder? The temptation to let loose and have one (or six) too many drinks on a weekend away, must pose problems, I posit (having some experience with the phenomenon). Both smile demurely, and Bennett simply says, "The things people do today are the same things that they've been doing for 20 years, and we know to take care of our guests."

Then, a guest couple walked by and began patting one of their two Bernese Mountain dogs, a feature of country house. The dogs represent the mix of country casual and sophisticated elegance Beaton and Bennett had cultivated. This had also been evident in Gushue's cooking earlier at lunch, which was both serious and playful and based primarily on the produce from the restored gardens at the hotel. Langdon Hall has been growing much of their food from the very beginning. Gilded age families always grew their own vegetables at their country house, explained Bennett, and what they didn't eat they would load on the train to take back to New York City. But even before the gardens had been restored, or the doors opened, Langdon Hall grounds began providing inspiration. When Didcock and some of his team arrived in Cambridge from the top UK country hotel Chewton Glen in the spring of 1989, they explained, the kitchen hadn't been built yet, so the brigade worked construction. On one of the first days, Didcock went out into the woods behind the house and brought back morels and wild leeks to make his first staff meal. "That's when we knew we had something special here." Bennett said smiling.

Find out more about Langdon Hall at langdonhall.ca

Malcolm Jolley is the editor of Good Food Revelation.