A 26-ounce white truffle from Alba in Italy’s Piedmont region that was sold at a charity auction over the weekend to three Hong Kong property developers for a record $208,000 will be served at a private dinner in Hong Kong on Sunday. A scarcity of white truffles in northern Italy this season has driven prices up.
Wedginald, the cheddar cheese that has become a star of the Internet as it matures live on screen, is up for auction with the proceeds going to charity.The 44 pound cheese that has attracted 1.65 million viewer hits on www.cheddarvision.tv since it first went on the web late last year has nearly completed its 12-month maturation and will be ready to eat by Christmas, the owners said.
“As a fitting end to the first year of Cheddarvision we at West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers are going to auction Wedginald to the highest bidder and donate all the proceeds to BBC Children in Need,” they wrote on the website.
Cheese lovers can get not just a slice of the action but the whole lot by placing their bids on Ebay before November 19.
France’s esteemed Michelin guide next week launches its first edition outside the Western world in Tokyo. The Michelin reviewers, who can make or break chefs in Europe, have an intimidating task in Tokyo, which has at least 160,000 restaurants, more than any other city in the world. The arrival of the prestigious foreign guide has elicited major interest in Japanese media but also stirred passionate debate. The principal fear is that a Western guide will not appreciate the subtleties of Japanese cuisine, where a meal is judged not only by what is on the plate but by the finesse with which it is presented.
“These are French people who want to judge Japanese cuisine according to French standards,” said Akira Ito on his blog about food. “Japanese people who take part in this ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
A survey in the UK revealed that one in five restaurant customers is simply too embarrassed to ask for a jug of tap water instead and can end up paying more than £5 a bottle. Now the National Consumer Council, who carried out the research, are calling for all restaurants to offer free tap water instead of pushing environmentally unfriendly bottled varieties. A spokesman said: “Consumers are fed up paying over the odds for mineral water. The majority of restaurants push mineral water just to make a quick profit. It’s no surprise that most people say they should have the right to free tap water. The council is now calling on all restaurants to start serving free tap water.” Evidence of how water snobbery is overtaking the mystique surrounding wine emerged last month when it was revealed that Claridge’s restaurant boasts a water list. The most expensive brand is a frisky little number from volcanic rock in New Zealand’s Rotomo Hills – selling at £50 a litre.
