THE MOST EXPENSIVE DINNER ON EARTH IS THIS $1,900 PER PERSON “TECHNO EMOTIONAL” SERVICE, IN WHICH CRAFTED SETTING

BY MATT SCANLON

A 90 mile journey from Valencia, Spain into the Mediterranean brings you to Ibiza, the third largest of the Balearic Islands (an autonomous community of Spain) and home to arguably the world’s most frenetic and certainly most model strewn nightlife scene. Since 2012, the island can also claim the world’s most expensive meal, described by its venue, Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza, as “the world’s first gastronomic performance experience.”

Now in its fourth season, Sublimotion is helmed by Chef Paco Roncero, along with friends and fellow chefs Dani Garcia, Diego Guerrero, Toño Perez, and pastry chef Paco Torreblanca. Roncero is one of the leading representatives of Spanish Avant grade cuisine, both on the Iberian Peninsula and beyond its borders. His techniques translate not only into a style of preparation but also a way of understanding food as a unique sensory experience his meals becoming a place where molecular gastronomy meets performance art. Roncero’s improvisation is given room to y in this $1,900 per head dinner for up to 12 guests, which includes radical staging, scene projection, a custom soundtrack for each dinner written by lm score composer Alfonso González Aguilar, and pre and post dinner tracks spun by DJ and music producer Wally López (a wizard of Ibiza nightlife). Even temperature and humidity are variously adjusted throughout the meal in order to enhance the experience, and VR goggles were a part of last season’s meals.

A staff of 23 conducts the “techno emotional” Sublimotion service, in which setting and five sense stimuli is vital. The menu changes with each seating, but in the past, Roncero’s tasting menu has included nitrogen frozen olive oil, caviar and oysters washed down with Laurent Perrier champagne, blow fish served from a cockleshell, and mini sandwiches flying to diners on mini balloons. At any moment, waitresses wearing peace sign glasses may dance a choreographed number, or illusionist Jorge Blass might bend the mind before dessert begins, which one year was highlighted by Ferris wheel delivered cake pops and lemon merengue ice cream and levitating macarons.

Sublimotion / Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza
sublimotionibiza.com