Jamie Ee Wen Wei, Straits Times 3 Feb 08;
IT HAS been a good year, the bonuses are in and some people appear more willing to splurge on their Chinese New Year reunion dinner.
The Hua Ting restaurant in Orchard Hotel offers one of Singapore's most expensive reunion dinners at $5,888 a table. Three groups - two companies and a family - have snapped up reservations for Chinese New Year's eve.
The nine-course meal will be prepared by the hotel's award-winning Group Master Chef Chan Kwok and boasts of top-grade ingredients in its dishes.
One of the highlights is braised Australian dried abalone with top-grade fish maw and fa cai (Chinese black moss). This dish by itself, if ordered a la carte, would cost over $3,000.
Restaurant manager Irene Yue said this was the first year a $5,888 set menu was introduced.
Last year, its most luxurious set menu cost $1,888. But some diners started asking for better ingredients in their menu, hence the restaurant's idea to create the more expensive selection.
Despite the hefty price tag, Chef Kwok is confident Singaporeans will bite on the $5,888 menu which he spent two months shaping. He sourced for ingredients from countries such as Australia, India and even Chile.
Not only are the ingredients rare, they also take a long time to prepare and cook, which adds to the cost, explained Chef Kwok.
The Australian dried abalone, for example, has to be soaked for at least two days, then braised for half a day.
Chef Kwok, named Asian Ethnic Chef of the Year at the World Gourmet Summit in 2005 and 2006, will head a 28-member kitchen crew.
He does not think such pricey menus will become the staple here though, unlike in China where the most expensive reunion dinner is going for $5,000 per person.
'People will want to try new and interesting dishes but the average Singaporean will still go for the $1,000 and $2,000 meals,' he said.
'The quality of the food is already considered very good.'
