JUST as the passengers on the Titanic continued to feast as their ship was sinking, so City slickers are booking specially designed, £1,000–a-head “bonus banquets”, apparently oblivious to the risk of being sunk by a recession.

Vivat Bacchus, a restaurant in the City of London, has devised a special menu to allow high-fliers to eat into their annual bonuses, which will go into bank accounts from this week with the first pay–day since the end of 2007.

Some traders may be suffering a bout of indigestion with bonuses some 16% lower than last year, adding to last week’s stock market roller-coaster, which saw the biggest one-day fall since September 11, 2001 and an overall plunge of 10% in share prices since the autumn,

But this is not deterring the big winners from splashing out. Vivat Bacchus is offering seven courses plus top-end wines in the £1,000 meal, called the Bonus Tasting Menu. Traders begin with sevruga caviar followed by Bahama rock lobster and then hand-sliced Joselito ham.

The main course is grilled Wagyu fillet steak with red onion marmalade, seared goose foie gras and saute green beans. Wagyu is an ancient strain of Japanese cattle is now bred in Australia.

The meat is swilled down with a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild.

Next is a cheeseboard of 15 different samples along with quince jelly, fruit and biscuits. That is accompanied by a 1963 Taylor’s port. Then comes the sweet course — Volhrana chocolate souffle with clotted cream accompanied by Chateau d’Yquem, one of the world’s great pudding wines.

If that seems like cutting corners, the meal can be upgraded with the payment of a supplement.

But will not the lower bonuses and, more significently, the fear of recession deter would-be diners?

“I have found over the years when bad news begins to circulate around the stock market that our City customers never lose their appetites,” said Neleen Strauss, the restaurant’s co-owner. “People want to spoil themselves with their bonuses.”

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