Kebabs, burgers, curry, and now Scotch eggs. But our man has had his fill of the same old PR stunt.
Last week we were informed that the world’s most expensive Scotch egg had been created.
Costing £500, it was made with a Clarence Court Burford Brown egg, which costs 35p at Waitrose. However, the egg is covered in 24-carat edible gold leaf. It’s then wrapped in a wild salmon puree (instead of sausage meat) and coated in Japanese Panko breadcrumbs.
It’s served with beluga caviar and eaten with a mother of pearl spoon, which you can keep (if this seems generous, you can buy one of these spoons for £5.95).
This is just the latest in a long, long, long, long list of the world’s most expensive food items created to… well, what exactly are they created for?
The inventors might argue that they are designed to offer the most magnificent culinary experience by assembling the finest ingredients in one mouthwatering but wallet-breaking meal.
Me, I tend to be a bit more cynical and say they are PR wheezes designed to gain a little bit of publicity. Not only that, to bump up the price tag and ensure they are truly the most expensive, all of these creations invariably contain some form of caviar and gold or diamonds, which tends to lend a crushing sense of déjà vu to each new one that’s paraded before us.
A shoulder of milk-fed lamb, saffron, Krug champagne-infused mint and cucumber yoghurt and, of course, a gold leaf garnish were some of the ingredients for the “don of all doners”. Unbelievably, this £750 kebab was actually created to promote a TV programme about street food.
Exhibit B – Samundari Khazana
This curry, which translates as ‘seafood treasure’, was a mix of caviar-filled quails’ eggs, abalone (or sea snails, if you prefer), a whole lobster and, here it is again, edible gold. Selling for an eye-watering £2,000 a portion, it was made to promote the DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire!?
Here's a video from The Sun where a reporter sees how it's made and gets to try it (maybe it's just me, but she doesn't look too convinced by the first mouthful):
Last month, New York restaurant Serendipity 3 mixed Japanese Waygu beef, white truffle butter, handmade English Cheddar, black truffles, a fried quail’s egg and Kaluga caviar into a burger. Where’s the bling, I hear you cry? Never fear – it came with a golden toothpick encrusted with diamonds. Still, at least the proceeds from this $295 creation were going to a homeless charity.
Rather uncharitably, nearby burger truck 666 Burger almost immediately created the Douche Burger. This (allegedly) contains a gold-leaf Kobe beef patty with foie gras, caviar (they quickly got the hang of this), lobster, truffles, gruyere cheese melted with champagne steam and barbecue sauce made using Kopi Luwak coffee. Oh, and the bun is wrapped in dollar bills.
“We have an unbridled disgust for these types of burgers and seething anger towards those that make them and try to sell them as something fancy and worthy of respect, when in essence, it’s just a chef/customer being a douchebag. Call a spade a spade,” 666 Burger said on their Facebook page.
While the reaction is perhaps a little over the top, their point remains a valid one. And it can be applied to pretty much any of these food versions of Frankenstein’s monster. So no more, please. Think of an original PR stunt instead.
And, incidentally, gold leaf doesn’t taste good on anything, no matter how expensive the other ingredients are.
What do you think of these PR stunts? Harmless fun or a waste of money? Let us know in the Comments section below.