3 Star Dine & Dash

August 19, 2008 1:13 AM

A Swiss gourmet- who was on a world tour of Michelin three-starred restaurants when he mysteriously disappeared before paying the bill at El Bulli - has just been spotted in Geneva.

As it states in the first link as a young man Pascal Henry disappeared for several months while touring America. It does not divulge whether this was the result of a bill-dodging manouver however...

posted by gomichild (24 comments total)

What a bizarre tale. I was hoping to see a reference to him claiming he was suffering with Global Transient Amnesia.
posted by goshling at 1:34 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

"Pascal Henry" is an anagram for "Cheap, sly, ran". Coincidence or what?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:05 AM on August 19, 2008 [13 favorites]

Oh, come now. Who here hasn't treated themselves to a meal at one of the world's finest restaurants and then bolted to Geneva without paying the bill? Glass houses, people.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:40 AM on August 19, 2008 [5 favorites]

The Bourne Gastronomy
posted by Poolio at 2:42 AM on August 19, 2008 [11 favorites]

The link refers to him as "gourmand" not a "gourmet." A gourmand, like a gourmet, appreciates good food, but the former usually refers to a big fat person who can really pack it away (which is a requirement for any decent food critic.) "Bolted" and "ran" are thus probably not the right verbs to describe Mr. Henry's movements.
posted by three blind mice at 2:56 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

What a bizarre thing to do. Also, Poolio for the motherfucking win.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:56 AM on August 19, 2008

And times online calls him a gastronome... and they have a recent photo.
posted by gomichild at 3:00 AM on August 19, 2008

The story would be really interesting if it read "...has just been spotted in Geneva eating a Big Mac."
posted by SteveInMaine at 3:06 AM on August 19, 2008

You know, it looks like he made it through 40 restaurants before disappearing, so it is just a bit odd to disappear 18 short of his total goal. At least, odder than just a normal disappearance.
posted by redsparkler at 3:12 AM on August 19, 2008

I'm just drooling at the idea of making that trip. I wonder how much it would cost (rough guess: shitloads of money).
posted by jack_mo at 4:00 AM on August 19, 2008

gomichildPoster: "And times online calls him a gastronome... and they have a recent photo."

He looks a bit like Tony Blair.
posted by sveskemus at 4:15 AM on August 19, 2008

An earlier article mentioned he had saved about £30,000 for the trip (about 60k USD). Obviously a big chunk of that is the travel costs. He was, after all, doing this alone, and even El Bulli doesn't cost more than say $400-500 for the food.

Perhaps something clicked in him after the 40th restaurant and he realized that he wasn't really enjoying this after all. The top 68 restaurants in 68 days? That sounds like a nightmare to me. I'd prefer to enjoy many of them, though not *all* of them, over the course of a lifetime.
posted by vacapinta at 4:17 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

@ A Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it 'le Big Mac.'
posted by incessant at 4:34 AM on August 19, 2008

He's going to have a huge stack of dishes to wash back at El Bulli
posted by Flashman at 6:06 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Paul Bocuse is still alive?
posted by yhbc at 6:06 AM on August 19, 2008

I like to think of myself as a McGourmand.
posted by srboisvert at 6:47 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

"The top 68 restaurants in 68 days? That sounds like a nightmare to me."

I think the truth is right there.

My wife and I tried a very very very scaled down version of this in Vegas a couple years back. Only the best restaurants, lunch and dinner, day after day. After three days we'd had it and needed to cancel reservations. I have no idea what it is about eating that way back to back, but it gets to be too much very quickly. And eating at a great restaurant, but not liking it because you've had too much of it, is really sad.

I suspect he had the realization, "If I have to eat another incredibly great meal again tomorrow I'll slit my wrists."
posted by Ragma at 7:55 AM on August 19, 2008 [3 favorites]

He looks a bit like Tony Blair.

Which might explain why he was found in Geneva trying to burn a convention center to the ground.
posted by shmegegge at 8:26 AM on August 19, 2008

For years I've wanted to eat at El Bulli. That guy (chef Ferran Adrià Acosta) spends like 6 months out of the year in his "research kitchen." God damn!

Spain seems like the place to eat. Check out the grilling at Etxebarri.

Now, if only I had money to match any of my desires...
posted by punkbitch at 9:16 AM on August 19, 2008

He was only going to one top restaurant a day. If you ate sparsely during the day, you'd be happy to see dinner.

Anyway, if he wanted to back out, he'd simply plead illness. He's well-known, no one would doubt him, they'd probably even vanish the bill for him.

This is definitely mysterious. I suspect either
1. conceivably transient amnesia
2. some other external cause we simply don't know about ("Darling, I'm finally all yours!") or
3. a breakdown (probably due to some other external cause we don't know about)
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:19 AM on August 19, 2008

4. Molecular gastronomy: Pascal Henry is still at El Bulli, but he's just very, very tiny.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:02 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Anyone whose name is 2 different SI units should not be trusted to take a tour of all three-star restaurants.

Just ain't in their nature.


- Newton Weber
posted by chimaera at 10:47 AM on August 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Has he taken up traveling around Europe posing as disadvantaged children? Somebody check the orphanages.
posted by Biblio at 5:43 PM on August 19, 2008

Hmm bit more info... but no real answers...
posted by gomichild at 11:55 PM on August 19, 2008