Leslie Brenner Spent $30K on Dinner, Except Not Really

A $30,000 dinner is probably pushing the limits of even the world's most lavish expense accounts, let alone that of a Dallas restaurant critic. Nonetheless, the latest issue of FD includes a story with the enticing subhead "Restaurant critic Leslie Brenner blows the cost of a small Mercedes on the most expensive meal in Dallas" — which of course, as D Magazine editor Tim Rogers points out, really wasn't the case at all.

Instead, Brenner merely spoke via phone and email with Mansion chef Bruno Davaillon to create a strictly hypothetical menu clocking in at over $29,000 for eight diners — $395 a head for the dinner itself, "with another $19,612 for wines chosen from the Mansion's list." Said hypothetical menu includes such items as a ridiculously ostentatious "63-degree egg with chanterelles and shaved black truffles from Australia, overlain with a sheet of 24-karat gold leaf," California abalone, beluga caviar, Wagyu beef, the requisite foie gras, and, on the wine side, "the world's most sought-after Sauternes." Perhaps the story will catch the eye of a mega-high roller who prefers his eggs gilded?

· Leslie Brenner's $30,000 Fantasy Dinner at The Mansion [FD Luxe]
· FD is a Lying Liar Magazine That Prints Lies [SideDish]