$1,000 Paella Latest to Join Family of Outrageous Restaurant Dishes

It's obscenely overpriced publicity gimmick time again! Today the object of derision is the $1,000 paella now on the menu at Sofrito. Chef Ricardo Cardona says the dish—made with rice, truffles and truffle oil, baby eel, octopus, Maine lobster and Alaskan prawns—was inspired by other outrageously expensive meals, which include such greatest hits as the $1,000 bagel and $25,000 dessert. And like Karl Rove before him, Cardona seems to have divorced himself from such vulgarities as "reality" or "facts"; he asks the Daily News, "Who said 'recession'? Who said 'bad economy'?" To his credit, Cardona's taking in just $800 from each paella sold because 20% is being donated to Ayuda, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged Latino youngsters. A nice gesture, but it also makes our righteous indignation about 20% less fun.

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By John Del Signore in Food on October 8, 2008 5:30 PM

Comments [rss]

hulabula

Wow I cannot believe this. Both times I've dined at Sofrito, I ordered the "regular" Paella, and both times it was below average, fishy (the muscles were unopened and bad) and lacking any "wow" factor. I can't imagine what could possibly be in the $1,000 Paella to warrant such a price tag. (Truffle Oil is @ $12 at your local supermarket and for $1,000 you can purchase a decent portion of whole truffles yourself...)

The best dish I had was the bread!

aveB4life

this warrants a $1,000 price tag because rice prices have skyrocketed to $0.005/lb wholesale.

NannyState

Who wouldn't happily fork over $1,000 for a dish that looks like pig vomit?

Steven

$900 profit sounds about right.

jterry121

If there is a God, this scumbags restaurant will be foreclosed by next week.

ides_of_march

"And like Karl Rove before him, Cardona seems to have divorced himself from such vulgarities as "reality" or "facts";"

For goodness sake, is there any topic you can't awkwardly shoe-horn your political bias into? You can't even mention paella without a dig at a political figure you don't like?

This is just plain old, crappy writing and poor journalism regardless of political persuasion.