$525 for a meal.
One person, no drinks.
Its obsene. Even if the chef is from the “3rdbest in the world” restaurant, the Fat Duck’s Heston Bluemental. They’re set to come to Melbourne’s Crown Casino for six months.
Heston doesn’t seem the sort of bloke who set out to charge over $1000 for a dinner for two.
On his TV show, Heston’s Feasts and Heston’s Fantastical Foods, he seems truly motivated by exciting, surprising, and bringing out childlike wonder in everyday folk, indeed offering them all sorts of goodies for free (or at the TV company’s expense).
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Crowd pleasing food from Star of Greece. Photo: Willunga WIno
Across the ocean in Denmark, Noma (world’s number 1 restaurant) has also had itchy feet. Noma opens for 2 weeks in January 2015 in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo. Tickets via ballot were $400pp excluding wine. Compared to Heston in Melbourne, it was a bargain.
Rene Redzepi from Noma seems the antithesis of catering to the wealthy. Foraging for (free) ingredients is what he has made his name on.
How do you get from freely foraged, food for the people to $400 a person?
How does one get to this point?
At home in Bray, The Fat Duck charged 220 pounds per person, at today’s exchange rate $395.
But the Duck was not without controversy, with numerous food safety incidents. Serious problems, an outbreak of the novovirus that plague cruise ships, and earlier in 2009, food poisoning.
For $500 I could eat five times, for two people, with wine at some of my most memorable restaurants yet. At the Salopian, or overlooking the ocean at Star of Greece. On the lawns at Leonards Mill or in the cottage at Fino.
Meal at Star of Greece. Photo: Willunga Wino
Shifting up a step, I could dine like a queen with Mr Wino at Appelation (it is named after me after all!) or D’Arry’s Verandah. I could even, finally experience Orana, Magill Estate, or Hentley Farm.
The contrast is more obscene when you think about what that $525 could mean to people in need.
OzHarvestestimates that $1 could feed 2 people in need.
Oz Harvest at Tasting Australia. Photo: Willunga Wino
Not all of Heston’s income has to come from The Fat Duck. There are other plentiful income streams. A deal promoting Coles. Producing products for Coles. Lucrative stuff.
This is quite unlike Jamie at Woolies, who’s restaurants are far more family and wallet friendly, and still stunningly decorated so as to be a special occasion restaurant. Likewise the lucrative supermarket deal also includes an educative component, to promote eating fruit and veg, and an ethical component, where Jamie reserved the right to push Woolies to continue to improve animal welfare.
Jamie went out of his way to stretch the $4 school dinner budget to include healthy, local seasonal meals in his program Jamie’s School Dinners, both in the UK and the USA.
So is it really worth it? Is the experience really worth a thousand bucks and change per couple? When I think about the most expensive meals I’ve had – that is exactly what I do remember, that they were the most expensive meals I’ve had.
When I had my first job, in my first home in Sydney working for a local council I had a $40 a week food budget. Those were some of the most memorable meals and times of my life. I wish Sharon’s $120 Food Challange blog had been around then, I could have quartered it for a single person and made life easy! Instead, I became part of the local food co-op, went to farmers markets, made friends with pulses and legumes and slow seasonal, cooking. That is what I remember. Connecting with the farmer who grew my produce. Communal eating with friends.
My most memorable restaurant meals have been about the food – naturally – but it is not the overly fussy food that I remember. It is pure local produce driven, flavourful, like Itosho’s, the tiny Michelen starred Tokyo restaurant of an 80 year old Chef Ito, who humbly brings each course to you, has a chat, and explains the dish. Lots of smiles, laughs shared, and simple, pure flavours. Under $100 per person (including sake and beeru).
Chef Ito’s signature tempura veg. Photo: Willunga Wino
What was your most memorable meal? What made it memorable? Would you pay $525 for dinner? What else would you spend it on? Comment below.
It’s insane isn’t it. Especially given how many exceptional restaurants Melbourne has. I hate to think about the markup on the wine too…
A pricey evening indeed. In retrospect, the $400pp for NOMA in Tokyo was a bargain I should have jumped at! 😉 (not really – I could have 4 meals at my favourite Tokyo restaurant Itosho for that!)