As 15 billionaires recently forked out $23,000 a head on a gourmet meal, MYLES McWEENEY investigates what the perfect gourmet blow-out might consist of

For the second year in a row, the world's most expensive restaurant in a little steak house in Tokyou called Aragawa, according to top business magazine Forbes. It costs a minimum of $375 per person for a serving of hand-reared Wagyu beef from one particular farm, simply served with pepper and mustard.

But for one night recently, Aragawa's position was comfortably surpassed when 40 people sat down to a very special dinner in Thailand's capital, Bangkok.

For conspicuous consumption this single meal take some beating. Fifteen mysterious and fabulously wealthy gourmands, and 25 specially invited guests, scoffed a 10-course meal, which cost each of the billionaires 1 million Thai Baht. That is about €23,000 in our money (17% tip and Thai government taxes not included).

The venue was the dizzying Dome restaurant situated on the 65th floor of the landmark State Building, where the anonymous fine food lovers (all the restaurant staff had to hand in their mobile phones at the kitchen door to preserve the mysterious guests' identities) were treated to a fabulous menu created by six of Europe's most famous three-starred Michelin chefs who had been flown in specially for the event.

The super-chefs included Alain Soliveres of the Tallivent in Paris, Antoine Westermann of the Buerehiesel in Strasbourg and the only woman, Annie Feolde of Enoteca Pinchiori in Florence.

Included in the 10 courses sampled by the pampered diners were 'creme brulee of fois gras with Tonga beans', 'a tartare of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oysters' and 'veal cheeks with Perigord truffles'.

Racking up even more air miles than the chefs were cornucopias of rare and exotic ingredients from 35 different countries in all parts of the world. There was the Kobe beef from Japan, live lobsters from the west coast of Ireland via France and from Maine in the United States, oysters from southern Australia, white Alba truffle from Italy and black truffles from Perigord in the Dordogne region of France.

But there were no Thai ingredients. German superchef Heinz Winkler rather snootily said, "We want to improve the standard and inspire Thai chefs to raise their level of inspiration."

Shelbourne blow-out

We asked Canadian- born John Mooney, executive chef of Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel, which is to repoen on March 12 after refurbishment, to devise the fantasy menu he would cook if the cost of ingredients was no barrier.

He rose to the challenge magnificently, managing to come very close to the €24,000-a-head Bangkok blow-out, scoring a phenomenal €22,000 for just two courses.

To start with, John says, he would serve a Kobe Beef Carpaccio with White Alba Truffle, Armando Manni Olive Oil and Caciocavallo Podolico Cheese. Kobe beef is produced in Japan from special Wagyu cattle.

They've been bred for hundreds of years to produce a hugely tender, intensely fat-marbled flesh. Even in Japan Kobe beef is very expensive, costing at least the equivalent of €200 a pound at retail. The animals are fed copious quantities of sake and beer mash, and individually massaged daily.

Meanwhile, in November 2006 the Associated Press reported that a Hong Kong property investor and his wife had paid €125,000 for an Italian White Alba truffle which weighed 1.51 kilos.

The cheese element is a hugely exclusive Buffalo Mozzerella from southern Italy, made only in May and June. It costs a stunning €1,000 a kilo.

The ingredients would cost some €2,500 per serving to buy, but restaurant economics would demand he charge the customer €7,500 for the Wagyu beef dish.

John's second course would be Blue Fin Tuna Otoro Wrapped in Pata Negra Iberico Ham with Matsutake Mushrooms in a Petrus Reduction. So what's special about this dish, apart from the fact that John swears he'd use a €4,795 bottle of 1961 Petrus for his sauce?

The main ingredient, otoro of blue fin tuna, costs a king's ransom. Toro is a cut from the fatty belly of the tuna and otoro is the most expensive part, from the underside of the fish close to the head. Those who have eaten otoro swear by it.

Matsuatake mushrooms are hugely prized in Japan, where a single perfect example will sell for €200 or more, while Pata Negro Iberico, a dry cured ham from Spain, can cost up to €400 a kilo. But it's the wine that brings up the price of this dish. The ingredients cost €5,000, and would be priced at an eye-watering €14,500 a helping.

O'Kelly's Banquet

We Irish are fond of a good blow-out every now and then. One was enjoyed almost 50 years ago by President Sean T O'Kelly on St Patrick's Day 1959. The venue was the White House in Washington, the host US President Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower.

The State dinner started with prosciutto ham and melon followed by cream of watercress soup and melba toast, then celery hearts and olives.

The fish dish was Lobster Newberg, succulent lobster meat in a rich sauce of butter, cream, cognac, sherry, eggs and cayenne pepper, and the main course was roast Long Island duckling with apple sauce served with casseroled aubergines and French beans with toasted almond slivers.

For an Irishman in the 1950s it must have seemed rarified fare. After that they ate a green salad with anchovy and cheese crusts, followed by an ice cream dish, frosted mint delight. Copious draughts of 1952 vintage Pol Roger champagne were drunk.

You can bet your bottom dollar Bertie won't be swigging Pol Roger of any vintage, let alone a bottle of Bass, with Mexican food lover George W Bush next month!

Famous feasts

ROME, AD 64: Tacitus writes of an orgy organised for Nero. It's likely the guests, between sexual escapades, nibble on dormice sprinkled with poppy seeds and sow's udders.

VAUX-LE-VICOMTE, FRANCE, 1661: Nicholas Fouquet, Louis XIV's finance minister, threw a lavish party on the completion of his castle, Vaux-le-Vicomte. The chef committed suicide because the fresh fish he'd ordered didn't arrive, and the King had Fouquet arrested for profligacy.

BRIGHTON, January 1817: The Prince Regent had his French chef prepare an extravagant dinner for the visiting Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia. There were 127 different dishes, and the piece de resistance was a 4ft high mosque created from marzipan.