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Meeting industry choking on $16 muffins
The fall out continues from a government report that criticized a $16 muffin as a symbol of government waste. At least one US Senator was calling for firings at the Department of Justice as a result.
The uproar came after the Office of the Inspector General reported that Justice hosted or participated in more than 1800 conferences in the last two years at a cost of US$121 million that included controversial costs such as the overpriced muffins which, as it turned out, was not the real price.
One of many complaints was that the government agency did not minimize conference costs as required by federal guidelines.
Hilton Worldwide, which hosted some of the conferences, said that the muffin invoices actually covered the cost of other items such as tea and taxes.
The $16 price was actually the hotel's way of quickly establishing a per-person price for attendees of the 2009 Justice Department meeting in question, according to Government Executive.
The Huffington Post raised the question of what might go into a $16 muffin.
“The typical muffin baked in an institutional setting such as a hotel costs about 50 cents or less, not counting labor. If you go crazy extravagant and reach for the top-shelf organic flour, maybe some hand-harvested wild blueberries from Maine and fancy sugar, you're still going to max out around $1 per muffin on raw ingredients,” it reported.
They tested the recipe in the AP kitchen.
The only way to get to $16 was to reach for some old fashioned booze and gold. They glazed the muffins with reduced Scotch Whiskey (an unidentified but expensive one) and added gold
“The result? A rather stunning and intense muffin that would cost a mere $192 per dozen (not counting labor) – or $16 each.”
By David Wilkening
David
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