Friday, July 25, 2008

A sticky topic

There is a bit of a controversy over the swanky Sharrow Bay Hotel in Cumbria forcing its staff to sign non-disclosure agreements over the “secret” recipe for its sticky toffee pudding. Even The Guardian seems to have got a bit hot under the collar on the issue of copyright and intellectual property - eminently debatable topics, I’m sure.

BUT.

What I’m wondering is, how is it that nobody seems to have noticed - or been shocked by, or written an article about - the price of that dessert at the Sharrow Bay Hotel. It’s £40 per pudding. Let me say that again (and again) - FORTY pounds! £40! Forty POUNDS! Is that the most ridiculously overpriced pudding, even for a Michelin-starred restaurant, or is it just me? Did nobody else – in The Guardian or anywhere else - think that amount extravagantly, criminally, offensively on the overpriced side?

Even if I could afford it, I wouldn’t pay £40 for a single dessert, not even if it was made from the most exotic expensive ingredients and covered in gold vark (edible foil)... let alone for a lump of sweet sticky stodge that could be made at home by any inept - or ept, I won't discriminate - cook!

4 comments:

hari said...

Hi Shyam,

Wish everybody in this world were as rational as you. With Income levels increasing the prices of commodities are no longer proportionate to their cost of production or even their intrinsic value. But people go for it, because they have money and very little time to spend it.

Anonymous said...

That seems to be rather excessive (especially when I convert it into dollars ;))

No wonder they want to create some kind of hype around the pudding (and surely the Guardian's report is helping). How else can they justify the price tag on the pudding ? ;)

meerkat said...

you are not paying just for the dessert, you are paying for the experience, the ambience etc etc.

expensive it might be but it is not compulsory to pay it. that is what a free society means. plus they must have enough takers otherwise they would be out of business by now.

find things like peak rail tickets more expensive and over the top

Anonymous said...

Hari: You're right

Lekhni: Yeah... and i guess there are always people willing to sped stupid amounts of money on stupid things.

Meerkat (aka Voice of Reason) :) - Yep, it's not compulsory to pay £40 for a pudding unless you're loaded AND stupid ... And as for rail tickets - peak or otherwise - those prices are deserving of a whole other rant!