If there was one thing that really tickles my fancy, it’s a meal with a difference. I’m not talking about those meals in the dark where instead of attempting to fondle around your plate – you end of brushing up against someone, or something else – awkward. No I’m talking about a meal on the top of a high rise building in Brussels, dining on a Michelin starred moving tram, or in this case – dinner 100ft up in the sky. The problem for many is that these experiences cost money. At £250 a head for dinner this definitely isn’t cheap.
While the £250 price tag does included everything form start to finish, you’re essentially paying for the experience – not necessarily the food. The chefs are battling some extremes here 100ft up in the sky. Strong wind, cold blasts of air over the food and a lack of cooking utensils and heating elements. How they do it is beyond me. I can barely get warm food out to guests in the comfort of my own home, let alone in this environment. Descending up I grabbed the camera and stuffed a glass of wine in my mouth to bring you this flattering photo of me, which has kindly added a nice double chin and pale glare.
During our 100ft journey in the air we were being looked after by head chef, Paul Aussignac of restaurant Club Gascon (he’s crazy). Once up in the sky the adrenalin kicks in and the chefs were dancing around their tiny kitchen in the middle of this sky table (harnessed in of course). With wine flowing from Villa Maria of New Zealand and some fantastic house music playing in the background, we were all hoping this hour long experience wouldn’t go too fast.
A small baguette arrive with some delicious butter. And our starter of crackling soft duck egg and autumn truffle. Easily our favourite dish of the evening. Sitting on top of that crunchy, flaky nest, it only got better once the egg burst open and leaked all over the plate – the shaving of truffle may have helped a little too. I have it on good authority that this dish is a favourite over at Club Gascon – you can easily see why.
I should apologies now for my awful photos too. The conditions weren’t exactly very mobile camera friendly. Second course of pressed foie gras and crab with a spicy tomato pulp was an interesting dish to say the least. The pressed foie gras was delicious, it had that meaty texture you’d want, but still melted in the mouth. The crab element clashed a little and was mostly overpowering against everything else on the plate. The real oddity was the spicy tomato pulp – where was the spice? Call me old fashioned but I’d have much preferred some more refined, toned down flavours with the foie gras.
If anything but delicious wasn’t a good enough explanation for our third course then perhaps its rarity will be. White gold legine fish, something that I’d never heard of before. Only served in two restaurants in the UK, Club Gascon being one of those, it certainly was a magnificent fish – and an expensive one. It was very meaty, pristine white flesh and had a subtle, but lingering soft fishy flavour. Made even more decadent (and again expensive) with a garnish of French caviar, almond and verbena – a match made in heaven, my heaven anyway. A delicious dish which really did leave us feeling a little spoilt.
The Roquefort macaroon, rancio jelly and smoked pickled walnut was a bit of a love-hate Marmite situation for us. In my case, hate. The macaroons were how they should be, light but with a little chew and bite. The rancio jelly and cheese were so unbelievably strong that even for a palate just as indulgent as mine, I just couldn’t take the hit from such intense flavours at once. It was honestly quite a hard dish to eat, and that wasn’t just the case for myself. I saw plenty of uneaten plates.
Time had in fact flown by and before we knew it we were already back on the ground chomping in to our dessert of black luscious millionaire slice with lemon gel and thyme ice. You may have heard me rant on before about herb and floral ice creams but thyme and lavender are always my top two flavours. They offer so much flavour, yet have a subtle tone which surprisingly doesn’t come across too savoury. A few too many selfies later and my ice cream had all but melted in my ignorance. A nice dish but it didn’t quite blow us away.
Stepping off our table in the sky, all I wanted to do was get back on and continue the night. It’s rumoured the event will be coming back to London next year, and other cities across the UK so if you’re wallet allows, this is definitely something you should try and experience at least once. While the food may not offer a particularly great reflection on the restaurants, you do have to remember exactly what these chef have (or don’t in this case) 100ft up from the ground. My score may seem a little off, but given that half of this whole experience is the food, there is still a lot of space for improvement if any future flights are to make Dinner in the Sky becomes the world renowned foodie experience that I’m sure they hope it will continue to become.
7/10
