The experience: priceless. The cost: don’t ask

Gingerbread house studded with gems, dinner with the Roca brothers and one-off whiskies from The Macallan distillery

Have dinner with Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca at El Celler de Can Roca and taste a different whisky from The Macallan distillery with each of the 14 courses.
Have dinner with Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca at El Celler de Can Roca and taste a different whisky from The Macallan distillery with each of the 14 courses.

If you were going to spend €62,000 on a Christmas gingerbread house “created in the likeness of your own home”, you’d most likely have a sprawling pile several storeys high to base your design on.

But even so, it’s unlikely that your palatial pad would be studded with precious gems, like the ridiculously over-the-top model being offered for sale by UK “luxury products and experiences” company Very First To, and made by Georgia’s Cakes.

The gingerbread house, made with flour, butter and sugar, rather than solid gold as its price tag would suggest, is adorned with 150 South Sea pearls and a five carat unheated Mozambique ruby. It can be delivered to Ireland, the company assures us. Don’t expect a rush, we say.

Very First To, which seems to cater to clients who don’t need to ask the price, is also currently offering a dinner at El Celler de Can Roca which is a collaboration with The Macallan whisky. For the occasion, the restaurant is creating a 14-course menu paired with a “never-previously-offered” range of 14 The Macallan whiskies, including the oldest single malt ever released by the distillery. The dinner takes place in March 2015, and the price, if you need to ask, is €8,500 per person. The proceeds of the dinner will go to Charity:water. See veryfirstto.com

Marie Claire Digby

Marie Claire Digby

Marie Claire Digby is the former Senior Food Writer at The Irish Times