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Edible gold and silver sprinkles are the latest culinary craze
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter19.10.09
Austerity chic is so last season - in the food industry at least.
A craze for dishes adorned with real gold and silver is sweeping London's top restaurants.
And now, edible precious metals are being sold for the first time at a high street department store.
The range of 23-carat gold and silver sprinkles and leaf, Food Bling, goes on sale exclusively in Selfridges today and already orders have poured in from all over the world, including New York, Kuwait and Paris.
The sparkly flakes are flavourless and feather-light, so they can be used on sweet and savoury food or floated in drinks.
Laura Santtini, an Italian cookery writer, is behind the product called Easy Taste Magic. She said: "People want to feel special in these difficult times and this is an inexpensive and easy way of making a meal more glamourous."
The writer, who runs her family's Santini's restaurant in Belgravia, added: "Sprinkle the flakes on top of the most basic soup and it suddenly seems like a feast for a king."
The launch of the £14.99 sprinkler, which contains 150mg of gold or silver, comes after the price of gold hit a record high of £665 an ounce as investors seek safe havens for their money amid volatile financial markets.
A kit for £15.99 can also be bought which contains two pieces of gold leaf, two pieces of silver leaf, each 5cm sq, and a smaller shaker.
A growing number of restaurants in the capital are using gold leaf. The Greenhouse in Mayfair, which uses gold on its petits fours, and Archipelago, near Goodge Street, which serves soup containing a gold-covered quail's egg, were at the vanguard of the trend a couple of years ago.
Michelin-starred Rasoi Vineet Bhatia in Chelsea offers a chicken dish topped with gold leaf, while newly opened The Eastside Inn in Farringdon offers gold-wrapped popcorn. Umu, in Soho, decorates dishes with gold leaf and The Bombay Brasserie, near Gloucester Road, serves gold-sprinkled caviar.
Ms Santtini said: "The last time [gold] was popular in food was in the Eighties when yuppies wanted gilded sushi. One little pot of flakes could last a whole Christmas season." Shopper Miyelle Carmi, a 23-year-old graduate from Stanmore who tried the edible metal, said: "This would be a great way of livening up a cheap dinner party."
