What recession? Hotel launches £7,000 menu
Londoners prepared to help the country spend its way out of financial hardship are being offered a particularly lavish way to be parted from their money.
The Lanesborough hotel in Mayfair is launching a tasting menu for the festive season which with extras could set you back more than £7,000.
The nine-course feast was devised by its three-Michelin-starred chef, Heinz Beck. It costs £1,125 per head (including tip) and is accompanied by specially selected Krug champagne.
There are options to finish with the world's oldest cognac — dating from 1770 and £4,000 a shot — and a £2,000 Cohiba Behike cigar assembled by Fidel Castro's personal roller, Norma Fernandez.
Diners, in groups of four or eight, are given champagne for each dish from 1995, 1998, 1990 and 1985 vintages, ordered for each party direct from the house of Krug.
The Evening Standard sampled the menu. First was wild red sea bream carpaccio with exotic fruit vinaigrette, then scallop carpaccio with pea and artichoke. Dishes kept coming — halibut with "Spellos" beans and herbs; foie gras, cereal and wild mushroom consommé, presented by restaurant manager Pasquale Cosmai.
The showstopper was chef Beck's signature: fagottelli, parmesan and caviar — a favourite of Michelle Obama when she tried it at Beck's Rome restaurant, La Pergola, during the G8 summit. The little pasta parcels are filled with a creamy carbonara mousse.
There was perfectly pink lamb shoulder wrapped in a crisp bread crust, and a parfait of wild berries, marshmallows and chocolate cannoli, served with Château d'Yquem 1er Grand Cru Classe, Sauternes 1999.
After a selection of petits fours, guests are escorted to the smoking area. Bar manager Giuseppe Ruo serves the single-cask cognac, a 50ml shot from a £80,000 bottle from a private collector in France.
