Chefs in Bangkok create $25,000 dinner

Diners will sip their way through legendary vintages, like a 1985 Romanee Conti, a 1959 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a 1967 Chateau d’Yquem and a 1961 Chateau Palmer, considered “one of the greatest single wines of the 20th century,” said Alun Griffiths of Berry Bros. & Rudd, the British wine merchants that procured and shipped about six bottles of each wine for the dinner.

The wine alone cost more than $200,000, Griffiths said.

“Just to have one of these would be a great treat,” he said. “To have 10 of them in one evening is the sort of thing that people would kill for.”

Wine lovers regularly organize exorbitantly expensive tastings in New York, London and Japan but such events are not as common in Thailand, where it would take the average schoolteacher five years to earn $25,000.

“That is a waste of money,” said Rungrat Ketpinyo, 44, who sells Phad Thai noodles for 75 cents a plate from a street cart outside the hotel. “I don’t care how luxurious this meal is. It’s ridiculous.”

‘It’s crazy’
Organizers said most of the profits will go to two charities — Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Chaipattana Foundation — a rural development charity set up by the king of Thailand.

“Expensive is very relative,” said Ohri, the Lebua director. “Some of the world’s best chefs will be cooking their best dishes with the finest vintage wines.”

“It is an experience of a lifetime.”

Organizers scrambled to fill seats at the last minute after 10 Japanese people canceled their reservation, citing safety concerns after the New Year’s Eve bombings in Bangkok that killed 3 people.

To ensure discretion, diners will be escorted to a restaurant on the hotel’s 65th floor in a private elevator, and all staff in possession of cell phones with cameras will have to check the devices at the door.

The chefs confessed they were astonished by the $25,000 price tag. A meal at the own restaurants costs about $260.

“It’s crazy,” Westermann said. “The fact that one meal could be this expensive,” he shrugged. “After this, nothing can shock me.”

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