The global downturn may be starting to bite but Hong Kong's luxury restaurants are confident the appetites of the wealthy will still stretch to Christmas dinners at prices of up to HK$136,000 a head. On the day that the government was announcing details of its food voucher plan for the needy, the five-star Langham and Langham Place Hotels were offering to fly in a top chef from London to cook a banquet for five in a hotel suite or client's home for about HK$680,000 - or HK$136,000 a head. Meanwhile, swanky restaurant Aqua is advertising what it calls the ultimate Christmas feast - a flamboyant seven-course dinner at HK$10,000 a head. The offer, throughout December, includes limousine transfer to the restaurant in Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, and a gift for each guest. The menu, by chefs Eugenio Riva and Tatsuya Iwahashi, includes Australian Coffin Bay oysters with Beluga caviar, premium black truffles, Ise lobster, Boston lobster, foie gras, guinea fowl breast and Kobe beef. All this is washed down with wines including Bollinger Grand Annee 1999 champagne and a Chateau d'Yquem 1996 from Bordeaux. Angela Lee, Aqua's director of sales and marketing, said it had been designed to be extravagant and was aimed at a 'very small number of affluent people who want to really splash out and enjoy a truly memorable Christmas experience'. Bob van den Oord, vice-president of sales and marketing at the Langham hotels, said the HK$136,000- a-head Christmas feast prepared by chef Andrew Turner was aimed at people for whom money was no object. The menu created by Turner, chef of The Landau in London, features crispy tora fungus with liquid Beluga Almas bon bons and saffron ponzu, slow-cooked Kobe beef fillet studded with white truffle, foie gras, pickled matsutake and Baron du Lustrac 1800 essence. Without wine, the bill totals HK$30,000 a head but the chef's wine recommendations - including a HK$300,000 bottle of Le Montrachet 1978 DRC - add HK$500,000 to the bill, bringing it to HK$680,000. Elsewhere the Grand Hyatt is offering a Christmas Eve dinner with carols at Grissini for HK$1,600 per adult or Christmas dinner at HK$980 per adult and HK$580 per child. The InterContinental's festive feasts range from a Christmas Eve buffet at HK$888 to HK$2,788 for an eight-course dinner on New Year's Eve.
