Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security has been criticised for eating a a slice of £1,450 gold-plated steak at Salt Bae’s London restaurant just a day after laying flowers at Karl Marx’s grave.
To Lam was seen eating at the Instagram-famous chef’s London restaurant Nusr-Et restaurant in Knightsbridge, which has been criticised for being outrageously overpriced.
A table of four recently left dinner at the restaurant after being presented with a bill for £37,023 ($50,888), according to a post shared to Reddit’s London subreddit.
Celebrities like Gemma Collins have lamented the prices of Salt Bae’s steaks. Ms Collins said she spent £1,450 on a gold-wrapped tomahawk steak, the same dish seen being served to the Vietnamese delegates.
A video, which has since been taken down, was posted to the Salt Bae’s official TikTok and showed To Lam being fed a piece of gold-plated steak by the chef himself.
General To Lam had led a delegation at the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, before heading to London to dine at Salt Bae’s restaurant.
The steak he was shown eating costs more than his monthly wage which is between £442 to £590 before allowances.
While it is unclear who footed the bill - or how much it cost, the video was shared online despite being deleted, inviting criticism of the minister.
Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City was experiencing food shortages and overwhelmed hospitals amid a total coronavirus lockdown in September.
A human rights activist from the country, Hoang Dung, was one of the first people to post the pictures on his personal Facebook page, and questioned why a work dinner had to be held at such an expensive restaurant.
One person was quoted by Radio Free Asia as saying: “My tax money has been used for luxury.”
Another critic, Facebook user Mung Tin Ngo, wrote: “Vietnam is still poor but the minister is so luxurious, the officer is enjoying so much extravagance,” Facebook user Mung Tin Ngo wrote.
