March 6, 2008
BANGKOK - A Bangkok restaurant is treating its biggest spenders to a 300,000-dollar meal prepared by Michelin-starred chefs -- but only after they have jetted to an elephant camp to see how the other half live.
Lebua hotels, which last year put on a sumptuous dinner with a 29,000-dollar per head price tag, will on April 5 fly up to 50 of their top clients to Surin province, one of the kingdom's poorest regions.
After seeing the dwindling number of pachyderms and the impoverished lives of their handlers, the high-rollers will fly by private jet back to Bangkok where they will feast on lobster, black truffles and Roquefort ice cream.
Deepak Ohri, managing director of Lebua hotels and resorts, hopes that the trip will spark an altruistic streak in the assembled bankers, casino magnets and real estate moguls.
"We're taking these people to Surin, to see how the poor people actually are living and are managing their elephants. They cannot even manage themselves and they cannot manage their elephants," he told AFP.
"So all these people can actually create the infrastructure in that particular location, and at similar locations all over the world."
Unlike after last year's one-million-baht meal, no money will be given to charity, and this time Lebua will pick up the tab for the dinner prepared by French chefs Jean-Michel Lorain, Michel Trama and Alain Soliveres, who have eight Michelin stars between them.
"We are spending 10 million baht here so we are not giving any money to charity ... We don't need any donation, we need them to think, come up with some products from their companies," Ohri told AFP.
Some may question the ethics of such a display of wealth and poverty, but Ohri insists such projects help bridge the gap between the rich and poor, and predicts a warm welcome for the well-heeled foodies.
"If I am a poor person and I see a rich person is coming, it would make me very delighted because they see at last there is someone coming to look at us," he said.
