When we’re given the opportunity to create and manage a Beijing event with a twist, Team Bespoke can get rather excited. Ideas start whizzing around the office, mood boards are pieced together, large amounts of peanut brittle are consumed (all part of the creative process, you understand), and something begins to take shape.
So when recently we were asked to create an event that would wow the VIP guests of a pharmaceutical market research firm while they were in town for a conference, we leapt at the chance – and the ‘Taste the Five Elements” dinner was born.
The setting was a dramatic 600-year-old temple complex just north of the Forbidden City that’s also home to fabulous fine dining restaurant TRB. But it was Bespoke Beijing’s Traditional Chinese Medicine expert that would be the key to the event, co-creating a menu with the chefs at TRB according to the principles of Chinese medicine.
The Chinese believe that the five elements (wood, fire, earth metal and water) affect everything from the seasons to the healthy functioning of our inner organs, so seasonal dishes such as Corn Soup and Braised Pork Belly with Purple Sweet Potato were included to reflect the theme.
But guests weary from a day at a major conference were first ushered in to the temple’s bar where they tasted and made cocktails using everything from Jasmine tea leaf-infused Scotch whiskey to Osman flower bitters. Next they were lulled into a sense of calm by a meditative tai chi performance in the temple’s courtyard before being invited to join our expert for dinner.
The evening’s finale? A long spout tea performer pouring tea for each and every guest using lightning fast kung fu movements from a copper kettle whose spout measures a mind-boggling 110cm – and he didn’t spill a drop!
“Thank you also for the flawless management of the event and the expert advice on the dinner theme and magical location.
My guests and I enjoyed every minute of our evening.”
Diana Tan, Principal, ASEAN Primary Market Research,
IMS Health Asia Pacific