A rare breed turkey wrapped in 50-carat gold leaf, a bottle of champagne that predates World War I and the world’s most expensive fish eggs are part of a meal that’s being described as the most expensive Christmas dinner in the world.
For $200,450, London chef Ben Spalding, currently head chef at John Salt, will prepare a Christmas dinner for four made up of some of the rarest and most expensive ingredients in the world.
For instance, before tucking into their gilded meal, diners will clink to the holidays with an aperitif of Piper-Heidsieck Champagne circa 1907 – valued at £37,000 – in diamond-studded flutes.
The four-course meal opens with bird’s nest and Almas caviar, prepared with a 150-year-old balsamic vinegar, and Pata Negra Ibérico jamón.
Following that, diners will sample the world’s most expensive melon from China, the Yubari King, served with whole white truffle and saffron.
But the showpiece of the meal is the Dodine of rare breed turkey with Wagyu beef fillet and heart, wrapped in no less than 50-carat gold leaf and sprinkled with Akbari Pistachios – which alone cost £5,000.
The world’s most expensive coffee bean, the Kopi Luwak – coffee berries extracted from the feces of the Asian civet cat – make up the dessert course which is served with Densuke watermelon, a seedless fruit grown on the island of Hokkaido, Japan which produces only 10,000 melons a year, all of which is served off a gold, Ugandan vanilla plate.
Meanwhile, Spalding will be donating 80 per cent of his fee to the Cancer Research UK and Hospitality Action. The event is organised by VeryRirstTo.com, a service which offers exclusive, luxury products and experiences to its members.
If £125,000 is a little outside your price range, The Fat Duck – where Spalding completed a residency – is offering a £300 holiday meal that includes edible snow, snail porridge, dishes that will riff on frankincense and myrrh, and nitro-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream.
A 10-course Christmas Eve dinner at Le Cinq restaurant inside the Four Seasons in Paris, meanwhile, is priced at €600, and includes the usual suspects one would expect from a gourmet French meal: foie gras, caviar and ‘French-hunted’ venison.
