The Price is Right
If you have ever fretted over whether your customers will stomach a price increase to your menu then sit back and feast your eyes on what some people get away with charging. Take Stock looks at the some of the world’s most expensive dishes!
Currying Favour
Topping the spice list at London’s Bombay Brasserie is a princely curry fit for a maharajah. The wallet- busting Samundari Khazana (translation: seafood treasure) curry will set you back a pricey £2,058 per portion. What makes it so expensive? It contains Devon crab, white truffle, Beluga caviar, gold leaf, Scottish lobster coated in gold, four abalones and four quail eggs.
Sky High Pie
In 2005, The Fence Gate Inn in Fence, Lancashire created a gourmet steak and mushroom pie for a particularly well-heeled customer. This pricey pastry cost an eye-watering £9,171 per pie or £1,145 per slice. Why? It contains £560 worth of Wagyu beef fillet, Chinese matsutake mushrooms that cost around £257 per pound, winter black truffles and French bluefoot mushrooms, which go for around £103 a pound. Its gravy is made with two bottles of vintage 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild (a £1,119 per bottle red) and the crust is covered in edible gold leaf. Your side of chips is extra!
In the Soup
A simple bowl of soup for lunch? Then don’t end up in it! At Kai Mayfair, London, a dish of its “Buddha Jumped Over the Wall” soup will set you back £122. It contains shark fin, abalone, Japanese flower mushroom, sea cucumber, dried scallops, chicken, huan ham, pork and ginseng.
Salad Days
What could be nicer at this time of year than a good old-fashioned ham salad on your menu? Find £1,725, and you could raise your game by ordering a 15lb Albarragena Jamon Iberico de Bellota from Spain. The pigs the meat comes from are fed on only acorns and roots to give the ham a distinctive flavour. It is then cured for three years before being put in a handmade wooden box with an apron, both handmade by a Spanish tailor. At least it comes with its own DNA certificate confirming its authenticity so there are no worries over the supply chain! All this for only £116 per pound.
Dog Gone It
If you thought hotdogs were cheap nosh, think posh. The now-closed Capitol Dawg restaurant, Sacramento sold its California Capitol City Dawg (hotdog) for an upscale £94. Why? It’s a three-quarters of pound, 18in. all beef sausage that’s served with French mustard, garlic and herb mayo, sautéed shallots, mixed baby greens, applewood smoked uncured bacon, Swedish moose cheese (it costs £129 per pound), tomato, dried cranberries, pepper and a basil olive oil/cranberry-pear-coconut balsamic vinaigrette in a herb focaccia roll toasted in white truffle butter. Tasty.
Pizza the Action
Forget the Margarita, if you want to increase your pizza margins, let Margo’s in Malta be your inspiration. It serves a white truffle and gold pizza for £1,556. It’s only available from October through to May – the truffle season. Truffles are flown in from Piemonte. Besides truffle and 24 carat gold leaf, the pizza is topped with organic water buffalo mozzarella.
Sugar Rush
A bun that breaks the bank? To provide gamblers with an energy-boosting sugar rush, Sweet Surrender at the Palazzo, Las Vegas serves a £482 Decadence D’Or cupcake. Created by chef Chef Olivier Dubreuil this is an iced bun from chocolate made from Venezuela’s rare Porcelana Criollo bean, topped with Tahitian gold vanilla caviar and edible gold flakes. It also includes Louis XII de Remy Martin Cognac and comes in a hand-blown sugar fleur-de-lis.
Sup Up
And finally, as pricey as liquid gold is a cocktail at the Playboy Club in London. The cocktail known as ‘Salvatore’s Legacy’ is a knockout £5,500 a shot and is officially recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive. It’s creator is Salvatore Calabrese, who concocted the drink from a mixture of rare booze – 1788 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, 1770 Kummel Liqueur, 1860 Dubb Orange Curacao and early 20th century Angostura Bitters.
