Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:12 pm Post subject: Any expat members going?
(from the BBC),
Some of the world's wealthiest gourmands will be jetting into Thailand this weekend, enticed by a banquet sprinkled with Michelin stars.
The gala dinner will be cooked up by six three-star Michelin chefs and served at a restaurant on the 65th floor of a luxurious Bangkok hotel.
The grand title of the event - "Epicurean Masters of the World" - is matched by its price tag.
The meal will cost diners 1m Thai Baht - about $29,000, or £15,000.
Tax and service are not included.
So far 15 people have reserved seats at the banquet, where they will be joined by 25 invited guests. The Dome restaurant at the State Tower in Bangkok says it is still taking bookings.
GALA DINNER MENU
Dish: Creme brulee of foie gras with Tonga beans
Wine: 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal
Tartare of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster
1995 Krug Clos du Mesnil
Mousseline of pattes rouges crayfish with morel mushroom infusion
2000 Corton-Charlemagne, Jean François Coche-Dury
Tarte Fine with scallops and black truffle
1996 Le Montrachet, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
Lobster Osso Bucco
1985 Romanee-Conti
Ravioli with guinea fowl and burrata cheese in a veal reduction
1961 Chateau Palmer
Saddle of lamb "Leonel"
1959 Chateau Mouton Rothschild
Sorbet "Dom Perignon"
Supreme of pigeon en croute with cepes mushroom sauce and cipollotti
1961 Chateau Haut-Brion
Veal cheeks with Perigord truffles
1955 Chateau Latour
Imperial gingerbread pyramid with caramel and salted butter ice-cream
1967 Chateau d'Yquem
I take that as a personal invitation. How many hungry (and homeless) expats can I send on my behalf? BTW can you please settle the bills in advance And tell the waiters to be generous with the "take home"
One is that anyone who spends that much on a meal should be certified insane.
The second is that, considering the numbers who cannot afford basic food, it borders on the criminal to have a dinner at this price.
So, no, I wont be going (as if you needed to ask!) and, sorry, not paying for anyone else to indulge either. _________________ The Middle Eastern states aren't nations; they're quarrels with borders.- P. J. O'Rourke
Being seen has become pricey nowadays. But aren't we just doing what they want us to - take notice of them? _________________ Thailand Forum - Korat Forum..
excess money should go in to programs that deal with helping the poor to help themselves
Nicely said! I just wonder why the basket's still so empty? Because they don't see that million baht as excess money but rather as an investment in PR. And they keep their names secret (according to the Bangkok Post) so everybody comes running to see who they are. _________________ Thailand Forum - Korat Forum..
Expensive tastes: Your bill, sir. $1,000,000, please Last night, in a Bangkok hotel, six Michelin three-star chefs prepared the priciest meal ever served
By Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok
Published: 11 February 2007
Probably the most expensive meal in the world was served last night to 15 paying customers and 25 invited guests. The bill was $1m, which works out at about £13,000 per head. Gratuities, it is understood, were at the discretion of the customer.
This remarkable feast was served in a Bangkok hotel to high-rolling gourmets and curiosity seekers, who jetted in from Europe, the United States and across Asia. Lest anyone choke at the sheer conspicuous consumption of it all, organisers pointed out that "most" of the profits will go to two charities - Médecins Sans Frontières and the Chaipattana Foundation, a rural development charity set up by the King of Thailand.
Six three-star Michelin chefs from France, Italy and Germany prepared the meal's 10 courses, each paired with a rare fine wine. "It's surreal! The whole thing is surreal," said Alain Solivérès, the celebrated chef of Taillevent in Paris. He was commissioned to prepare two of his signature dishes, including the opening course: a crème brûlée of foie gras to be washed down with a 1990 Cristal - Roederer's elegant champagne, which retails at upwards of £250 a bottle, but still stood out as one of the evening's cheapest wines.
Little expense was spared in putting together the event, titled "Epicurean Masters of the World". The ingredients were flown in fresh: black truffles, foie gras, oysters and live Brittany lobsters; caviar; Jerusalem artichokes and white truffles from Rome. Diners sipped their way through legendary vintages, like a 1985 Romanée-Conti, a 1959 Château Mouton Rothschild, a 1967 Château d'Yquem and a 1961 Château Palmer, considered "one of the greatest single wines of the 20th century," according to Alun Griffiths of Berry Bros & Rudd, the St James's wine merchants which procured and shipped them. The wine alone cost more than £100,000, he said.
As Solivérès said: "To have brought together all of these three-star Michelin chefs, and to serve these wines for so many people is just an incredible feat. C'est fabuleux!"
Diners included a casino owner from Macau, a Taiwanese hotelier, company executives and assorted high-rollers from around the world, said the host, Deepak Ohri, manager of Bangkok's Iebua Hotel at the State Tower, though he declined to reveal their identities. To ensure discretion, guests were escorted to a restaurant on the 65th floor in a private elevator.
Some of the chefs admitted they were stunned by the price. "It's crazy," said Antoine Westermann of Le Buerhiesel in Strasbourg, France, where diners pay about £150 a head. "The fact that one meal could be this expensive..." he shrugged.
Whether this is literally the world's costliest dinner is difficult to determine. Wine lovers regularly organise exorbitantly expensive tastings with fine food in New York, London and Japan. Hedonistic hedge-fund managers are known for dropping outrageous sums for a single night.
And how to measure the true cost of the meal for the five investment bankers who famously spent the best part of £50,000 on wine at Gordon Ramsay's Pétrus? He threw in the food for free. They all got the sack.
Alternatively... What £13,000 could buy
* 6,532 portions of lasagne from Marks & Spencer
* 600 boxes of therapeutic feeding milk containing essential nutrients to treat severe malnutrition in emergency starvation situations such as Niger
* 150 mini-libraries - including two bookshelves and 50 books each - in children's centres in tsunami-hit communities in Thailand
* Sponsorship of four of the world's poorest children for
17 years each, providing food, water, security and education
* A three-bedroom house in Tarvastu Vald, Estonia: fully renovated, it comes with electric heating, sauna, cellar, two sheds - and five acres of land.
I just wonder why in the numerous publications about the feast before it occured just nobody mentioned it was "for charity" and that "most" of the profits were to go to MSF and the Chaipattana Foundation. Or was that decided later - out of bad consciousness caused by the public's outcry? _________________ Thailand Forum - Korat Forum..
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject: 2088 version
There'll be another picnic on April 5, 2008. Before the feast you'll be taken to Surin by private jet to stimulate your appetite. Will they offer Isaan delicacies like roasted rats or fried crickets? _________________ Thailand Forum - Korat Forum..
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject: Cooks on strike
Sorry to disappoint everybody! But the cooks refused to go ahead with that. Maybe they feel there is enough good food in Isaan already. They might get drawn into a competition and loose. _________________ Thailand Forum - Korat Forum..
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:46 pm Post subject: "Emotional Tourism"?
Quote:
Well-heeled foodies get a taste of Thai poverty
BAN TATIT VILLAGE, Thailand (AFP) — Despite a moral snub from several star French chefs, a Thai luxury hotel group ploughed ahead with a meal it claimed would help bridge the divide between the rich and poor.
About 120 guests clad in black-tie finery late Saturday worked their way through 10 gourmet courses, prepared by five chefs flown in from Europe and served in the glittering ballroom of Bangkok's Lebua Hotel.
Some guests were flushed -- perhaps from the wine, but also after a day in the sun in a rural Thai village. The visit was the first course of a scheme Lebua dubs "emotional tourism," but derided by some as "poverty tourism."
Lebua flew about 30 of its top guests to an elephant camp in northern Thailand, with the idea that seeing the beasts and their handlers in miserable conditions would spark an altruistic streak in the food-loving high-rollers.
But the trip was almost derailed when the three French chefs slated to cook the evening feast found out that Lebua was not intending to give any money to charity and pulled out, saying the idea was "morally objectionable."
"There was never a moment when we said we would rethink -- we were determined," said Deepak Ohri, managing director of Thai-owned chain Lebua.
"We had some initial trouble getting chefs from France, because I think in France it became a huge issue, but then we said OK, if that is the case, then we will change our direction and move on to Europe."
Five chefs with a combined six Michelin stars were eventually jetted in from Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands to cook the feast, which included roast lamb, pork and asparagus -- a bit less showy than first planned.
Lebua also announced that it would indeed give some money to charity, with 4.5 million baht (142,000 dollars) in donations from the hotel and some guests to provide water sanitation for Ban Tatit village and books for its school.
Ahead of the meal, the guests -- most of them golfing buddies, suppliers and friends of Deepak -- trailed by 20 reporters wandered through the village, admiring the elephants as they frolicked with their handlers in a lake.
In the dry season, a lack of food and water for the elephants forces their handlers to ride them down to Bangkok to beg on the streets.
The gap between rich and poor was as visible as ever.
A handful of Thai society ladies, their faces covered with huge designer sunglasses, teetered on high heels in the shade of umbrellas. Sun-beaten villagers squatted nearby, giving them a curious glance.
But all were united in their confusion about the aim of the trip.
Paluk Sak Homhuan, a 28-year-old villager, thought the gaggle of Asian and European visitors were simply tourists.
"They have come here because it is a beautiful area and there is nice scenery," he told AFP.
As for the guests, some said they did not feel properly briefed on how the funds for the village would be administered.
"I was invited at short notice so I just got some key words like 'emotional tourism'," said German diplomat Raphael L'Hoest.
Scott Whittaker, executive director of Bangkok's DWP architecture firm, said: "I guess what this is saying is that yes, you can come to Thailand and have a great time, but there's also another side."
After nosing around Ban Tatit for a few hours, the hot and tired guests headed back to a private jet and back to Bangkok for a meal which cost Lebua about 300,000 dollars.
Former elephant handler Kosol Homhuan, 63, who survives on about 1,500 baht (47 dollars) a month, watched them prepare to leave.
"It's very expensive," he said with a simple shrug.
I would never pay that much for a meal, even if I could do (without the bank manager having a fit).
Apart from that, I wouldnt want to sit down to that menu, I much prefer simple ordinary food. _________________ The Middle Eastern states aren't nations; they're quarrels with borders.- P. J. O'Rourke
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BTW can you please settle the bills in advance 
And tell the waiters to be generous with the "take home" 
And they keep their names secret (according to the Bangkok Post) so everybody comes running to see who they are. 
