Autographed Copy of Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook Courtesy of Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

Several weeks ago, famed chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller “brought” French Laundry to the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong for a special $900 11-course tasting menu.  While Keller was in town, the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong was running daily Facebook and Twitter contests for a chance to win an autographed copy of Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook.

Although we couldn’t secure a reservation for the dinner (yes, we did actually try and would’ve flown over for the night), I did luck out and manage to win a copy of the cookbook on Twitter one day!

I have to pay the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong quite a compliment in that they were willing to work with us on getting the book shipped here to Taiwan.  The other winners were local and it was expected you would pick up the book in person.  However, we had just left Hong Kong two days prior and without securing a reservation for the dinner, I would’ve had a hard time convincing Brett to fly back out just to pick it up!

We were prepared to have a local colleague of Brett’s pick it up if need be; however, the Mandarin Oriental agreed to ship the book to us (at our expense).  We preferred to have it shipped so we did not have to worry about it getting damaged in our carry-on luggage.  Much to our surprise, the book arrived a couple days later, and they took great care in wrapping it and ensuring it arrived undamaged.  We cannot thank them enough!

Be sure to follow the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong on Twitter @MO_HKG and join their Facebook Page to keep up to date on their upcoming events, special deals, and any additional contests they might be running!

Perhaps winning the cookbook was a sign…maybe we will finally be able to secure a reservation for French Laundry on our next trip to Napa!