The 200 Club - London, September 2015
24 hours, 200 courses, every 7 minutes and 14 seconds.
To promote Barclaycard's launch of 200 discounted dining opportunities for cardmembers, Bompas & Parr curated a world-beating 200-course menu, served over 24 hours - a real gastronomic marathon and the world's most epic tasting menu .
The 200 courses were broken down into 10 meals, each colour-coded in terms of the foods they contained and the way they were presented, allowing a total of 40 diners to dip in for two-hour slots, but with four hero diners staying the course for the full 24 hours. Those four took only comfort breaks and participated in various activities aimed at digestive easing, such as egg healing and stretching, as well as chewing handmade Earl Grey Tea Chewing Gum (for promotion of masticatory saliva) and Pineapple Leather (for its powerhouse of the digestive enzyme bromelain) .
The 200 Club began with yellow Breakfast at 8am on 3rd September, which moved on to white Elevenses, then green Lunch, before easing into blue Afternoon Snack. The afternoon session saw diners enjoy purple Five O’clock Tiffin. The evening kicked off with a traditional pink Dinner, ramping up to a two-hour red Party Time meal, before recovering with some orange Drunchies, and laying low in a brown Blackout. The last course was aptly called the Final Countdown, bringing the epic banquet to a close with a multi-colour spread at 7:59am on Friday 4th September.
Behind the scenes, a team of eight international chefs laboured in shifts to produce a new course every 7 minutes and 14 seconds, creating a total of 1,600 plates. Gastroenterologist Dr Simon HC Anderson was on hand to ensure the food consumption during the gastro-odyssey was kept at a manageable level and did not place the participants’ bodies under any undue stress.
Photography by Mikael Buck and Ann Charlott Ommedal.