Chefs Shy From Asian Feast, Poverty Trip

from the Associated press via Google

By JOCELYN GECKER

BANGKOK, Thailand — Two dozen elite chefs have declined to take part in a dazzling dinner at a Bangkok luxury hotel, fearing controversy over what some critics are characterizing as a poverty tour for the rich.

The Lebua hotel, which is organizing the dinner, is no stranger to publicity. Last year, it put on a feast billed as the meal of a lifetime for $25,000 a head. Six top chefs were flown in from Europe to cook the 10-course meal, each plate paired with a rare vintage wine.

This year, on April 5, the Lebua is offering another 10-course spread — but this time for free. The twist is that those of the 50 big-spending customers who accept invitations will first be jetted to a village in northern Thailand to spend the afternoon learning about its poverty.

Deepak Ohri, Lebua's CEO, said the intention is to wine and dine top clients while doing some good. The bankers, casino owners and corporate executives from the U.S., Europe and Asia will be asked to open their wallets to build a school, a clinic and other things the village lacks.

"There are poor areas in the world that everybody is aware of. We want to help a corner of the world where most people haven't been," said Deepak, who put the hotel's cost for the dinner and trip at $300,000.

Three of France's most celebrated chefs initially agreed to cook the feast: Alain Soliveres of the Taillevent in Paris, Jean-Michel Lorain of the La Cote Saint Jacques in Burgundy and Michel Trama from the Les Loges de L'Aubergade in southwestern France.

Press releases went out advertising their attendance and the menu was finalized. Soliveres was to cook a risotto with Brittany lobster and a Roquefort ice cream for dessert. Lorain's three dishes featured his signature "Black Truffle and cabbage 'Michel Lorain.'"

But the plan sparked an uproar in French media. Some slammed the event as a $300,000 excursion to take the rich slumming.

All three chefs then bowed out.

"You can't see people living in misery and then go back to Bangkok to eat foie gras and truffles," Soliveres said in a telephone interview from Paris.

"It started an enormous, enormous scandal in France," he added. "I had no choice but to boycott the meal."

Lorain dashed off an e-mail to Lebua executives March 7 calling the event "unhealthy and morally unjustifiable."

Lebua executives apologize that the plans upset people. Still, they insist the dinner will go ahead, although they admit they are having trouble recruiting top-ranked chefs, even when offering $8,000 for a single night's work in the kitchen.

"We went back to France and asked 15 other chefs, and they all refused," Deepak said.

Ditto a chef in Germany and four more in Japan, he said.