On the MenuHow much would you pay for a special meal? US$750-a-head four-hands dinner in Hong Kong is a reminder that in this city, we eat rent

Recent four-hands collaboration menus by numerous chefs in Hong Kong have been stratospherically priced, with several costing upwards of US$500 a head

If that’s not your cup of tea, then head to one of my favourite spots for spicy ‘cold skin’ noodles, or grab a happy-hour drink at a new rooftop bar

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Chefs Manav Tuli and Adam Wong collaborated on a special four-hands menu at Chaat in Tsim Sha Tsui, priced at HK$2,888 (US$368) for lunch and HK$4,588 for dinner. Photo: Chaat

Published: 4:45pm, 7 Sep 2022Updated: 5:08pm, 7 Sep 2022

Much like air fares to vaunted destinations, bookings for special four-hands dinners are getting, well, out of hand.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a lunch to enjoy the coming together of two big-name Hong Kong chefs – Manav Tuli of Chaat and Adam Wong of Forum Restaurant – who spent the best part of a year working on a menu that fuses Indian and Cantonese cuisine, to great effect.

The rather brilliant “Chindian” feast – which was only available for two days in August – had clearly been thought out, with dishes that blurred boundaries and had input from both chefs.

I say this because it’s often all too easy to skip down the usual path of the ‘you go, I go’ format of four-hands dinners, where it seems the only collaboration happening are the shared marketing materials and division of profits.

Double-boiled seafood and coconut soup at Chaat fused Cantonese traditions with Indian spices. Photo: Chaat

A trio of Indian-Chinese dim sum started the four-hands meal by Chaat and Forum. Photo: Chaat

So there were flashes of genius, like tandoori-roasted cubes of radish cake, and double-boiled seafood and coconut broth with warming spices. But many balked at the price: HK$2,888 (US$368) for lunch, and HK$4,588 for dinner.