Food: Buffet di Ferragosto

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Food: Buffet di Ferragosto

9:44 PM |

Dana Kaplan, Stresa Sights |

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As they say, "Life's short... Eat dessert first."

Remember a little while ago when I wrote about the breakfast buffets at many of the large hotels along the lake? And how they are open to all, not only to guests? Well, here's another way you could have pretended to be a guest at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromee. Each year, on the mid-summer Ferragosto holiday, the hotel prepares a buffet dinner of extraordinary proportions. These photos were published on Facebook by the hotel, of the food and the decorations, taken before the guests arrived at 8 pm on August 15, 2012. By nightfall, the garden was full, and many of these platters empty.

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Like a cruise ship midnight buffet, the buffet here is part food fantasy and part decoration delight. Mixed among the tables are sculptures of butter, ice, and all types of food.

Canapes, butter sculptures, overlooking the lake.

Beautifully carved watermelon.

Ice sculptures.

Lettuce bouquet.

Awww... Possibly my favorite.

Then there was the food. Rows and rows of it.

And more.

Okay, possibly this is my favorite. Tower of prawns?

But what would I go for first? Probably these cannoli.

A dinner like this, at a hotel like this, isn't inexpensive of course. The price was 77 euro per person, excluding beverages. But this is a once-a-year event, and maybe a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sample so many delicacies created by the chefs of a five-star hotel. So where will you be next August 15?

Photographs courtesy of Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees. See all of them here.