How to Make a Healthy Snack
McBites = Modern McNuggets?
Slow Cooker Recipes
When Should Bars Cut You Off?
How to Scrape a Vanilla Bean
Best Riffs on Hot Chocolate
A very, very strange story has spun out this month in Thailand: It centers on the Bangkok luxury hotel Lebua, a resort that last year hosted an infamous “meal of a lifetime” quote-unquote charity dinner at $25,000 a head. This year, the hotel had planned a similarly sybaritic dinner: a 10-course meal cooked by a trio of France’s top chefs, who’d be flown to Bangkok. This meal, however, would cost diners zero dollars. Instead, the hotel required that the 50 guests first be flown to a village in northern Thailand to see and learn about poverty. Then they’d be jetted back to eat truffles and Roquefort ice cream.
The hotel called this bizarre bit of feel-good exploitation “emotional tourism,” but as the Guardian reported, “It got more emotion than it bargained for when the French media saw it as a poverty tour for the rich, triggering a mighty furore.” Within days, all the chefs had dropped out. Two dozen other chefs then turned down Lebua’s offer of $8,000 for a night’s work, although the hotel says a few European chefs have now accepted (it refuses to name them, though). All of the guests, by the way, are apparently still in.
I don't think there is any need for us to be cynical about an event, intentions behind which are really good. At the end of the day what matters is did that event generate something good for the people targetted i.e. the poors of the Surin village. And the answer is yes. Apart from generating a handsome donation for that village, the complete event made some rich people acquainted and sensitive...+READ
I don't think there is any need for us to be cynical about an event, intentions behind which are really good. At the end of the day what matters is did that event generate something good for the people targetted i.e. the poors of the Surin village. And the answer is yes. Apart from generating a handsome donation for that village, the complete event made some rich people acquainted and sensitive to the poverty that exists in this world. And when these priveledge people take steps towards finding ways to make these poor people (at Surin) self-sustaining the purpose of the event is achieved.-COLLAPSE
Despite the muck about their event, lebua has maintained a dignified silence. This in light of the fact, that a major newspaper like APF got simple facts wrong about the event. They mentioned that the dinner cost 300,000 dollars per person, whereas this was the cost of the entire event itself.
Even though the chefs abandoned the event, lebua still carried on. I think that the management is not...+READ
Despite the muck about their event, lebua has maintained a dignified silence. This in light of the fact, that a major newspaper like APF got simple facts wrong about the event. They mentioned that the dinner cost 300,000 dollars per person, whereas this was the cost of the entire event itself.
Even though the chefs abandoned the event, lebua still carried on. I think that the management is not too worried about this issue and will continue doing what they intended to in the first place; bring smiles on the faces of those who deserve it the most.
Kudos to lebua, I hope they make this a regular event.
Kasem-COLLAPSE