$25,000 dinner

[chrose]

This is too easy to get on a soapbox for so I'll let everyone else. Though they did make a comment that "most" of the profits will go to charity that too is suspect.
Sounds delicious but ridculous.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11457518/?GT1=9033

And the menu:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11497252/

[KYHeirloomer]

And the way things work, my server would have gotten the orders mixed up.

[oldschool1982]

I really don't have a soap box to stand on here since most of what I would like to say about this would be replaced by "other characters" in regards to the excess and self-serving nature of the people and things. (Regardless of the intended and highly doubtful cause. Just my cynical side folks ).

Anyhow when you see things like this it reminds me of the "Stewart" character skits on "Mad TV". Just a bunch of "Hoity toyties" (for lack of the words I wish to use) running around saying "Look what I can do".

And the menu didn't impress me all that much neither. Not that that really matters nor does any one really care.....Just my 25,000 worth.

[Pete]

It was a great meal. The food was fabulous. You guys are just jealous!!!!!!

[Suzanne]

Hey Pete, did they puree everything for the baby?

I think the menu looks pretty good, except for the overuse of truffles. That gets kind of boring after a while.

But does anyone else remember years ago, when Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey had a $4,000 dinner in Paris, after bidding on it for a public television fund raiser? The outcry then was huge, too.

It's a matter of judicious allocation of one's yearly moral outrage budget. In the old days, that budget was way bigger. People didn't have to work so hard, and so they had more time to get pissed off at the unfairness of it all, to sneer at the gross-outs of the rich. Those were the days when people gasped in outrage as Craig Claiborne reported on the front page of the New York Times that he and Pierre Franey dropped $4,000 on a 31-course, nine-wine dinner at Chez Denis in Paris, a feast offered by American Express at a charity auction.

This was back in November of 1975, when columnists kept whole stables of moral high horses pawing the ground in their stalls. Espying the $4,000 binge, Harriet Van Horne stabbed furiously at her typewriter, "This calculated evening of high-class piggery offends ) an average American's sense of decency. It seems wrong , morally, esthetically and in every other way." Over the column I remember one editor ran the head "Edunt et Vomant" (they eat and they vomit). It must have been in the pre-Murdoch New York Post when Dolly Schiff's op-ed page looked like the reading room of the Athenaeum.

(from the December 24-25, 2004 issue of counterpunch.)

Nothing new under the sun.

[KCZ]

Let's see, 40 diners at $25,000 each...that's $1 milllion in revenue. If "most" of that goes to the charities mentioned, then I applaud the efforts of the organizers. Doctors Without Borders has won a Nobel Peace Prize for its response to disasters and delivery of medical care to needy people, primarily in undeveloped countries. (I don't know of the other charity.) Removing cash from the wallets of people with large disposable incomes and giving it to humanitarian organizations can only be a good thing, IMHO.

[phatch]

I think it's funny to watch how people get upset at how some one else spends their lawfully earned money. It's really none of our business.

Phil

[kuan]

What's the tip on that?

[KYHeirloomer]

Phil, I disagee. The whole idea of the event was to make it our business, and talk about it. It was a PR stunt to create more awareness of Thai tourism possibilities.

I reckon they were semi-successful. For the tourism people this was a low-budget affair, but everybody is talking about it. The question is: how many people are relating it to Thailand? The answer is: I dunno. But from what I can tell, not too many.

[phatch]

Yes, it was a publicity stunt. Here I would expect us to talk about the food. But people want to grouse about the money. That's the part I object to.

I know quite a few people who travel to thailand. A number of coworkers, a couple of friends, some of my family. A guy down the street took his family there for a month. They stayed and ate with his brother. I don't think tourism is a problem from my perspective.

The government changing hands through a coup would cause me the most travel heartburn. Wait, they did that just last year.

Phil

[kuan]

Originally Posted by phatch

The government changing hands through a coup would cause me the most travel heartburn. Wait, they did that just last year.

Phil

Every few years in Thailand.

[shroomgirl]

yum.....seems like there'd be a cheese course, possibly a salad, maybe some sweet snacky treats at the end and some coffee???????

[castironchef]

The outrage at the expensive indulgences of tourists in Thailand should be directed at sexual exploitation, especially with minors, not at an overwrought dinner menu.

[cape chef]

Thailand huh,

The separation between the wealthy and poor is amazing.

Also, even if it's for a charity, who would car about Alain Soliveres anyway. Taillevent is almost irrelevant these days.