At £2000, ‘Samundari Khazana’ Is the World’s Most Expensive Curry

Paying anything upward of Rs. 2,000 for a curry might seem excessive to most of us, but in an upmarket Indian restaurant in London, customers are casually shelling out £2,000 for a seafood curry. It’s no ordinary seafood curry though, not by a long shot. Using the best sea produce the world has to offer, and a blend of the finest Indian herbs and spices, the dish is every bit as delectable as you would expect.

The ‘Samundari Khazana’ (literally translating to ‘ocean’s treasure’), the most expensive curry in the world, is served at Bombay Brasserie, a Taj Hotels property, that boasts of a wide array of celebrity patrons including Woody Allen, Kurt Russell, Kenny Everett, Freddie Mercury, and Nicole Kidman, among many others. Rumor has it, Tom Cruise once used the upscale restaurant as a ‘takeaway’ place when he got himself some Chicken Masala and Prawn Tandoori to go before rushing off to catch his private jet back to the United States, according to The Telegraph. Opened on December 10, 1982, Bombay Brasserie is said to have paved the way for the now booming multi-billion pound industry of Indian restaurants in the UK.

Priced at £2,000, the dish is aptly named as it’s ingredients, some of the most expensive to work with, are as close to food royalty as you can get. The curry is made of gently cooked Abalone sea snails (costing £300 a kilo), Devon crab mixed with Italian white truffle (£90), gold coated Scottish lobster, and Beluga caviar-filled quail eggs. The edible gold itself is valued at over £1,000 for 10g.

Head chef Prahlad Hegde is convinced the exuberant price tag doesn’t deter potential customers. “There are still people out there with money to spend and this curry is a real experience.” Chef Hegde told The Daily Mail. Mr. Hegde stays true to the authentic Indian gourmet food that Bombay Brasserie serves, saying, “The idea is from a basic Indian recipe I got from my mum but we are using the finest ingredients in the world.” The seafood is first marinated in chilli and tamarind paste, a routine very similar to many Indian dishes, but that’s where the similarity ends.

A curry befitting the people that would eventually eat it, the dining experience offered is undoubtedly unparalleled. Of course, if you, like me, are not quite living the life of the rich and the famous, it’s hard to imagine spending that kind of money on food (and this is coming from someone who spends all her money on food). But there’s a reason it’s the most expensive curry in the world: it’s an experience, an exclusive luxurious experience reserved for the select few that can afford it.