23-carat cake

• Last Updated: January 16. 2009 8:30AM UAE / January 16. 2009 4:30AM GMT

Jean-Pierre Garat, the food and beverage director at the Emirates Palace hotel, describes the ingestion of gold as “exclusive” and “an experience”. Stephen Lock / The National

Bradley Hope finds that at the Emirates Palace, the kitchen staff follow their own golden rule: add gold.


It barely needs saying that the Emirates Palace has a thing for gold. The metal is plastered in thin sheets across acres of the hotel’s ceiling and is also available for consumption: on cappuccinos, chocolate cake and, as of last month, floating in a special champagne.

A three-litre rosé bottle of the latter goes for about Dh11,000 (US$2,995) at the hotel. So far, most orders for this cuvee of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier – and 24-carat gold – have come from Russians, who like to imbibe it alongside caviar or oysters.

“It is... what is the word?” said Jean Pierre Garat, the head of food and beverage at the hotel, searching for eloquence. “Exclusive.”

“It is an experience,” he added.

His German colleague, Elizabeth Ross, put it this way: “You have it not only on your skin, but under your skin as well.”

The latest statistics from the Emirates Palace kitchen show that, in 2008, culinary gold consumption at the hotel reached five kilograms. That amounts to 5,000 one-gram bottles of gold leaf flakes from a German distributor, which each go for about $100. This means the annual budget for edible gold at the hotel is somewhere around $500,000 – and edible gold comes at a premium. Five kilogrammes of pure gold would cost a mere $131,098 as of earlier this week.

A survey by Fortune Small Business last year called gold leaf the most expensive food product in the world, beating out white truffles and saffron by many multiples.

“Gold is the theme of the hotel,” Mr Garat said. “We use it everywhere.”

The guests of the Emirates Palace are, it turns out, following in a tradition dating back to the Ancient Egyptians. Eating gold – in sheets, flecks or powder – has long been considered to have health benefits. New-age gurus claim that eating gold improves mental capacities and helps regenerate deficient organs.

Edible gold is an inert substance, so none of the chemicals in the human digestive system are able to break it down. Hence the gold leaves the system quickly; when you pay Dh50 for a gold-dusted cappucino, you’re actually renting. A brochure for the new Emirates Palace champagne also says “it is currently advised for nervous weakness, breakdowns and against fears and frustrations”.

A potential cure, perhaps, for anxieties about the crumbling world economy?

Mr Garat quietly assured this reporter that people who consume gold do not worry about such things.

Gold leaf, which is only about .07 micrometers thick and is usually 23-carat, is mostly found in desserts.

Perhaps the most famous of these elemental indulgences is found not at the Emirates Palace but in New York City. The Golden Opulence Sundae, sold by the restaurant Serendipity 3, costs $1,000 and contains five scoops of Tahitian vanilla ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla, rare Amedeai Porceleana and Chuao chocolate, American Golden caviar, passion fruit, orange, Armagnac, candied fruits from Paris and marzipan cherries. It is not only covered in gold leaf, it is decorated with “real gold dragées” – a kind of candied ball – and is served in a crystal goblet with an 18-carat gold spoon.

Despite all this, the only physical sensation associated with eating gold is the subtlest crunch. The element does not even taste metallic.

“It really does not have any impact at all on the taste,” Mr Garat said. Which raises the question: then why eat it?

The answer turns out to relate to the metal’s metaphorical content. Eating gold is about self-image.

“It’s a sign,” he said. “It comes with money and power and importance in a person.”

But, he added, some people need help to arrive at this idea.

“A lot of people still ask why we use gold in food,” Mr Garat said. “We tell them it’s a sign of excellence.”


bhope@thenational.ae