I'll Pick Up the Tab Trivia Quiz

Answer: White truffle cream cheese

You took one bagel and spread it with the white truffle cream cheese. It was then topped with little drops of goji berry-infused Riesling jelly which in turn were topped with pieces of 23 karat gold leaf. It's not totally self indulgent though as profits from the bagels went to the Les Amis d'Escoffier Scholarship which helps train future chefs (who will undoubtedly use gold leaf one day).

How expensive is a truffle? Well, in 2007 a Macau businessman named Stanley Ho paid $330,000 for a large white truffle at an international truffle auction. It weighed a massive 1.5kg (just over three pounds) and featured in a large banquet a few days later in Macau.

Answer: Expensive cognac

Called a Dragon Dog, this 'Guinness World Records' title holder for the most expensive hot dog starts with a bratwurst marinated in cognac. The cognac costs $2,000 a bottle. Placed into the hot dog bun, it's then topped with lobster, truffle oil and a special sauce.

Answer: A gold and diamond toothpick

Created in New York City's Serendipity 3 restaurant, what appeared at first to be a fairly regular burger is anything but ordinary. The beef was Japanese Wagyu beef which was infused with white truffle butter. There was also James Montgomery cheddar cheese, black truffles (shaved) and the egg is a fried quail egg. Added to that decadent mixture was a blini, crème fraiche and caviar. On the top bun was a toothpick, a gold toothpick with small diamonds set into it. It's all quite reasonable really, for the price.

There is a burger available in a Las Vegas restaurant for $5,000, but the price includes a bottle of wine which is worth $2,000 on its own.

Answer: The age of the spirits

There is a finite supply of the old spirits used in this cocktail. Into a Salvatore's Legacy go rare spirits such as a 1788 cognac, a 1770 Kummel liqueur, an orange curacao from the 19th century and Angostura Bitters that are over 100 years old. Drink up, but for that price, I hope you enjoy it!

There are more expensive cocktails available around the world but the prices are inflated by the addition of gold and diamond jewellery which come with the drink.

Answer: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

With noodles, abalone, scallops, chicken, ham, Japanese flower mushrooms and ginseng, it sounds interesting. An old Fujian dish, the recipe used to include shark fin which has been replaced by noodles. The name came from a tradition which says that the smell of the soup is so appetising that it would make Buddha, a vegetarian, stop meditating and jump over a wall to consume it.

The price? It was a snip at £108 for the finless version. The restaurant needed five days notice to assemble all the ingredients before you popped in for your soup.

Answer: Ten ounces of caviar

If you feel $1,000 is too much, there is much cheaper version available with only one ounce of caviar. It's not just the caviar which made this the most expensive omelette in 'Guinness World Records'. There is also lobster to complement the eggs, and it's served on a bed of fried potatoes. This makes an ideal impromptu meal as the restaurant doesn't require notice before you order.

Answer: Edible gold leaf

The gold leaf isn't the only expensive item in this pizza. The cheese is organic water buffalo mozzarella and the white truffles are flown in from Piemonte, Italy. With truffles only available in truffle season (October to May), the pizza's price can vary according to the ingredient's seasonal prices. Part of the proceeds from the pizza go to charity, so we can feel a little virtuous while we indulge.

The blurb on the menu about this pizza says 'This is not just a pizza, this is a sign from God telling us how great She is.'

Answer: 110 lbs/ 50 kg

Made by William Curley, a prize winning London chocolatier, the egg was made from a Venezuelan chocolate often considered the finest in the world. We wouldn't have enjoyed a hollow Easter egg. Inside the large egg were smaller chocolates with award winning flavours such as muscovado caramel, rosemary and olive oil, and Japanese black vinegar.

There were no gemstones decorating the egg but the outside did have some gold leaf decoration and confectionary flowers so it wasn't completely plain.

Answer: A Fabergé egg

This dessert was created to attain the world's most expensive dessert crown in 2011. Exquisitely made with top quality chocolate, it also had gold leaf (of course), champagne, caviar and a diamond. You needed to give the establishment two week's notice before sitting down to dine on this chocolate dream.

By the way, have you ever eaten gold leaf? I haven't, but I have had silver leaf in an upmarket restaurant. It doesn't taste of anything. It was, in my very humble opinion, as pretentious as the restaurant we were in. We weren't expecting anything like that and there it was.. silver leaf on my dessert. Tasting of nothing, I think all it does is give you more expensive poo! ;-)

Answer: A hamburger patty

This wasn't any ordinary hamburger patty. Developed by Dr Mark Post of Maastricht University, this patty was created in a laboratory from stem cells. The cells were taken from a cow and placed into a nutrient broth to multiply (sounds delicious already!) Collagen is added to the mix and then electricity is used to stimulate the burgeoning muscle fibres to contract, much in the same way movement will build up muscles in a human body.

A single patty required 20,000 muscle fibres which were developed over three months. Mixed with egg and breadcrumbs, and beetroot juice for colour, it was cooked in London. A food reviewer and a food researcher volunteered to try the delicacy in 2013. The verdict wasn't bad, with the meat having a texture quite similar to a 'real' hamburger but it was quite dry. The taste and texture certainly closer to meat than a textured vegetable protein which is often used as a substitute for meat.

The real question is why go to such cost and effort for a hamburger patty. The answer is the growing population of the world and the finite resources available for growing meat. Being able to create protein rich food in a laboratory is a possible solution to combat food shortages. It may even be possible for you to whip up some food in your own kitchen one day. One advantage is that the animal isn't killed for food as only a few cells are needed to start the process. This may mean rare animals or those difficult to obtain might end up on dinner plates around the world. It's a brave new world, dear reader. Platypus steak or panda chop, anyone?