HK$10k for dinner? Not even if it's Ferran Adria in the kitchen
Food and wine writer Mischa Moselle cannot accept that any meal could be worth that amount of money
When I describe the dinner being served in Hong Kong by Spanish chef Ferran Adria next weekend as "marmite", I'm not referring to the ingredients but to the divisive nature of the price of the 12-course feast.
There are people who are prepared to pay HK$10,888 per head (plus service charge) and then there are normal people, who find that cost crass and unpalatable.
I've been writing about food and wine for 11 years and just cannot accept that any meal could be worth that amount of money, hence my reference to the yeast-based spread, the tagline for which is, "You either love it or hate it."
The announcement of the dinner came hard on the news that Heston Blumenthal is set to charge guests at his reopened Fat Duck restaurant, in England, £255 (HK$3,000) per head for a culinary "journey". And that's before drinks and the 12.5 per cent service charge are added.
Cynics would say that it's easy to spend that kind of money in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris - the seasonal menu at Alain Passard's L'Arpège, for example, is €340 (HK$2,950).
They might also argue that it's not up to me to tell other people how to spend their money - if they want to blow enough cash to feed a family of five for six weeks on one dinner and the chance to get a selfie with Adria, that's their business.
I wouldn't tell anyone how to spend their money. And yes, my emotions here do defy logic, because not holding this dinner won't make the poor richer or feed the starving. But exorbitant restaurant charges still leave me with a nasty aftertaste.
