$500 a head for lunch! Is my Son Insane!!

[Roverlord off road spares]

Young Kris just got notified that he was a table for 4 @ $500 a head for lunch at Heston's "Fat Duck" , Melbourne restuarant in MARCH 2015.
They had 260,000 booking applications but it was a lottery to get a meal.
I've seen Heston's weird creations in his UK restuarant on TV.
I hope Kris doesn't need to go to Maccas on the way home as he might be hungry.
He says it's a life time experience, he doesn't gamble or have many vices to waste money on, so he reckons it's a treat for himself.
I could think of other things to spend that sort of money on.
Coming from a modest family I don't know where he got his expensive tastes from.

[seano87]

Well... I'd happily take his booking for him it he didn't want it!

It's really a once in a lifetime. People blow that much on any number of things (skydive, bungee, race car hot laps etc).

I'm typically pretty loathe to spend money, but I have done a degustation at about $300. I still remember it pretty clearly. It's OK to splurge a little sometimes.

[LandyAndy]

I watch Hestons shows,he is very entertaining.
Expensive,but I bet he enjoys it.
Andrew

[solmanic]

Insane? This is the same son who drives the magnetically troublesome Nissan Pulsar isn't it?

[tonyci]

Lucky man, I had the pleasure of eating at the Fat Duck in the UK.
I can guarantee he will not want nor need a burger on the way home.
Expensive I know, but if you can afford it, you only live once.
Cheers
Tony

[d2dave]

In my book, yep he's insane. The few times I have been to an expensive restaurant and to me 60 bucks is expensive for a meal, I had to get some more food on the way home as I left hungry.

I have found the more I pay the less I get. Give me a good $20 pub meal any day.

[Judo]

Add a few hundred per head for matching wine tasting too if you're going to do it properly! IE $500 doesn't include drinks.

We were tempted, but I don't think we went in the ballot in the end. We've done other things like that before and always left talking about how absolutely amazing it was. There's no way anyone will leave hungry.

It's not for everyone, but if you love good food, I reckon Fat Duck will be awesome.

[Roverlord off road spares]

Hi yes it is an extra $200 per head to have wine matched to your meal. Kristopher just told me. He said that they will just buy wine themselves on the day. And yes it is Kristopher that has had trouble with the Nissan.
This is Heather replying.

[LoveB]

500??????

who is cooking? jesus christ?? lol

or was the cow that was cooked previously in a movie or something??

[PhilipA]

Quoting from History
August 14, 2011 9:19 AM Subscribe

IN which work does the Roman historian Livy state that the Roman empire started to decay when cooks acquired celebrity status?

IN a recent survey on hunger, the Economist paraphrases the Roman historian Livy:

The food industry has been attracting extra attention of other kinds. For years some of the most popular television programmes in English-speaking countries have been cooking shows. That may point to a healthy interest in food, but then again it may not. The historian Livy thought the Roman empire started to decay when cooks acquired celebrity status.

Does anyone happen to know which work by Livy that this came from? Bonus points if someone can produce the latin text.
posted by cheez-it to Society & Culture (7 answers total) 9 users marked this as a favorite


Livy was actually alive when Augustus was, that's a pretty quick decline.
posted by empath at 9:30 AM on August 14, 2011 [1 favorite]



“The army from Asia introduced a foreign luxury to Rome; it was then the meals began to require more dishes and more expenditure . . . the cook, who had up to that time been employed as a slave of low price, become dear: what had been nothing but a métier was elevated to an art."

Livy (Titus Livius), Roman historian (59-17 B.C.)
‘The Annals of the Roman People’


It is put forward that societies in decline make celebrities of chefs. As you can see it's not a new phenomenon.

Regards Philip A