Dying for an evening on rare delicacies

DINING:GOING TO a restaurant serving up "Eight Things to Eat before you Die" feels a little like tempting fate. Isn't it a bit like pre-ordering a giant slice of hubris and resigning yourself to being face down in the petits fours at the end of it? Though, as it turned out, there wasn't anything as downright common as petits fours on offer in Harvey Nichols in Dundrum on Wednesday night.

Top chefs do elaborate taster meals all the time, and Thomas Haughton, head chef in the store's fine dining restaurant, has hit on the theme of eight things to eat before you die as a way of putting a shape on his adventurous culinary ideas. Looking around the lively crowd, it became clear the event was less about food to eat before you die than food that was "to die for", as the fashionistas favourite shriek of approval goes.

Enterprising businessmen Rocky Redmond and Robert Dunleavy, through their company Vanilla Venture, provide exotic ingredients from all over the world and it's these that Haughton earmarked for his menu.

Red King Crab was the first of the eight. It's "king" because, in the wild in Norway, it's enormous. Haughton served it in a delicate rillette with avocado cannelloni and gazpacho sorbet.

Committed foodies Mairead and Don McEntee from Dundrum were looking forward to the Wagyu beef. It's the famed Japanese Kobu beef, legendary food of the Samurais and comes from cows which probably get daily massages. Prices for Wagyu start at €200 per kilo.

Don had received the meal for two as a Father's Day gift and was delighted. "We're at the stage in life - now that we're getting rid of ornaments - we've let the family know that when it comes to presents, anything that can be consumed is very welcome." The menu did include some controversial courses, including milk-fed veal and foie gras - although Dunleavy stressed they are sourced from suppliers who work hard to give the animals as good a life as possible.

The remaining eight "to die for" courses featured a tiny spoonful of blue-black buttery-tasting pearl caviar; a delicious consommé of summer and winter truffles; a panna cotta flavoured with Tahitian vanilla, and a sweet confection made with L'Opera chocolate. All were presented with Haughton's trademark creativity, looking every bit as good as they tasted.

"I hope at the end of this meal to get a feeling of calm, the sort of feeling that would prepare you to leave the world," said Eva Koenig, a German woman working in banking, who perhaps took the menu's theme a little bit more literally than intended. The evening was a sell-out, with more than 30 people on a waiting list. All tickets for Haughton's next "Eight Things to Eat before you Die" are already gone. It's €90 per head, recession-mongers take note.