Home @ 09 Jul 2008 11:25 am by Christina Waters
Here’s the dinner menu for the recent G8 summit on the Global Food Crisis:
Corn and caviar
Smoked salmon and sea urchin
Winter lily bulb
Hot onion tart
Kelp-flavored beef and asparagus
Diced tuna, avocado and soy sauce aspic
Boiled clam, tomato and shiso in jellied clam soup
Prawns with tosazu vinegar jelly
Grilled eel and burdock
Fried goby fish with soy sauce and sugar
Grilled bighand, thornyhead fish with pepper sauce
Milk-fed lamb with herb and mustard
Roast lamb with cepes and black truffles
Cheeses, lavender honey and caramelized nuts
But that’s not all! There were four more courses, followed by G8 “Fantasy” dessert. All of the above was served with six wines, including French champagne and burgundy, Ridge Monte Bello 1997 (one of our Santa Cruz Mountains own!), Isojiman Shuzo Shizuoka sake and a Tokji Esszencia 1999 dessert wine.
It’s entirely possible that this dinner caused the global food crisis. I can only hope that at least some of the G8 reps sitting around that table last week felt deeply ashamed.
The word “disgusting” comes to mind.
How is this menu any different from a tasting menu at any restaurant such as The French Laundry or Cyrus or Manresa? I’m not at all understanding what point you are making. The menu had to appeal to the tastes of all of the attending ministers. It’s doubtful that all of the diners ate every bit of every item on the menu.
I understand the purpose of the meeting, but any menu designed to look as if they were trying to align it with world hunger would appear fake. Or if everyone gave up eating dinner to show coalition with the starving would be a mocking pretense.
How would you have had them do?
Mrs. Pat - I have been thinking about your response, and I do tend to agree that the sheer range of menu items was partly in consideration of all the differing cultural needs of the participants.
When I go to French Laundry I am purposely going out to have a definitive 21st century gourmet experience.
When I go to a conference addressing world hunger I would expect something more modest, that’s all.
The champagne and Burgundy, all the other wines, etc. all seemed needlessly opulent, given the occasion. (The public availability of the menu was perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of it all.)
Somewhere between a feast and “giving up eating dinner” altogether, there might have been a less hypocritical compromise.
Maybe not.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful comment.
C