Sheer Hypocrisy...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4286365.ece?Subm...

G8 leaders feast on 13 courses after discussing world food shortages.

Philip Webster, Lake Toya, Japan.

Organisers of the G8 summit on the Japanese island of Hokkaido have proudly displayed the menu for a sumptuous eight-course banquet enjoyed by world leaders meeting to discuss international food shortages.

Only 24 hours after Gordon Brown urged people not to waste food, and with the summit dominated by fears of global shortages, leading statesmen were treated to smoked salmon and Kyoto beef — having already eaten a five-course lunch.

Several African leaders were at the table as the need for their continent to double its food production was discussed at the summit.

Lunch began with truffle soup and rare crab while the evening feast, involving 19 separate dishes, had its own theme — grandly entitled "Hokkaido, Blessings of the Earth and the Sea".

Organisers boasted that the chef's team, "know everything that there is to know about food".

They proclaimed: "The three specialists will make the best of Hokkaido's natural blessings, supported by higher quality ingredients, more natural ingredients and the soil with which to enjoy them."

The dishes were prepared by Katsuhiro Nakamura, the first Japanese chef to win the famed one star of the Michelin guide.

He was hired as the “grand chef" by the Windsor Hotel where the leaders are staying, 30 miles from the general public and with 20,000 special police officers for security. The presidential suite at the hotel costs £7,000 a night.

The Japanese Air Force was flying regular patrols overhead and the coastguard was on stand-by on the island.

Aides insist that Mr Brown's warning to householders was not aimed at hectoring people but that ending food waste could save families £8 per week.

The G8 summit has cost £283 million, enough to buy 100 million mosquito nets.

Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow International Development Secretary, said: “The G8 have made a bad start to their summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption.

“Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world’s poor.

“All of us are watching, waiting and listening."

The menus in full.

Lunch:

White asparagus and truffle soup.

Kegani crab almond oil foam and green olive tapenade.

Supreme of chicken served with stuffed thigh, nuts and orange savoury with beetroot foam.

Special cheese selection with half-dried fruits.

Peach compote, ice cream and raspberry coulis.

Dinner:

Corn-stuffed caviar.

Smoked salmon and sea urchin "pain surprise" style.

Hot onion tart.

Winter lily bulb and summer savoury.

Kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto beef "shabu-shabu", asparagus dressed with sesame cream.

Diced fatty flesh of tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce and Japanese herb "shiso".

Boiled clam, tomato, "shiso" in jellied clear soup of clam.

Water shield and pickled conger dressed with vinegar soy sauce.

Boiled prawn with jellied tosazu vinegar.

Grilled eel rolled around burdock strip.

Sweet potato.

Fried and seasoned Goby with soy sauce and sugar.

Hairy Crab "Kegani" bisque soup.

Salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with vinegary water pepper sauce.

Milk fed "shiranuka" lamb flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard.

Roasted lamb and cepes and black truffle with emulsion sauce of lamb's stock and pine seed oil.

Special cheese selection, lavender honey and caramelised nuts.

G8 fantasy dessert.

Coffee served with candied fruits and vegetables.

Wine list:

Le Reve grand cru champagne.

Japanese saki.

Corton Charlemagne 2005.

Chateau Latour burgundy.

Ridge California Monte Bello 1997.

Tokaji Essencia 1999 from Hungary.