Food shortages and the need to double African production may dominate the G8 summit but even as they discussed the problems of the developing world yesterday, the leaders of the world’s richest nations, joined by several African leaders, ate course after course of fine food.

In a questionable public relations move, the summit’s Japanese organisers proudly displayed to the press the menus for a sumptuous eight-course banquet laid on last night and a five-course lunch a few hours earlier.

The leaders tucked into truffle soup and crab as they discussed Zimbabwe and aid to Africa’s poorest people. The evening feast of 19 separate dishes included diced fatty flesh of tuna fish and milk-fed lamb with aromatic herbs. Tomorrow, after working up an appetite discussing soaring food prices, the leaders will enjoy a £200 dinner of giant crab, £50-a-kilogram langoustine and sweet clover ice cream, prepared by Michel Bras, a Michelin three-star French chef.

It is all in keeping with a summit that has cost a total of 60 billion yen (£283 million) - enough to have bought 100 million mosquito nets to save Africans from catching malaria - and that frequently seems at odds with the Japanese hosts’ professed theme of ecology and environmentalism.

The International Media Centre, which will be dismantled after the summit, was purpose-built at a cost of £24 million: a total of £8 million a day.

Fibreoptic cables for the press centre have cost a further £43 million. The Japanese Government has completely refurbished the rooms, lawns and carpets of the Windsor Hotel, where the leaders are meeting, and resurfaced much of the perfectly serviceable 100km (60mile) road to the airport.

The public have been kept at least 30 miles from the hotel, which is perched on the top of a mountain overlooking a beautiful volcanic lake. It is protected by 20,000 police officers, air force planes fly regular patrols and coastguard and naval ships are on standby in the nearby bay.

Chefs have been given carte blanche to spend as much as they like on their menus, which yesterday had the theme of Hokkaido, Blessings of the Earth and the Sea, after the northernmost Japanese island where the summit is being held.

A menu issued yesterday proudly boasted that the chefs “know everything that there is to know about food in Hokkaido”. It added: “The three specialists will make the best of Hokkaido’s natural blessings, supported by higher quality ingredients, more natural ingredients and the soil with which to enjoy them.”

Yesterday’s dishes were prepared by Katsuhiro Nakamura, the first Japanese to win a Michelin star, who was brought out of retirement for the summit. He was hired as the “grand chef” by the Windsor Hotel, where the Presidential Suite costs £7,000 a night.

On Sunday Gordon Brown advised householders at home not to waste food as the world copes with a shortage. He said that ending food waste could save families £8 a week. The Prime Minister’s aides insisted that the aim of his message was not to hector people.

Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow International Development Secretary, said last night: “The G8 have made a bad start to their summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption. Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world’s poor. All of us are watching, waiting and listening.”

Dominic Nutt, of Save the Children, said: “It is deeply hypocritical [that] they should be lavishing course after course on world leaders when there is a food crisis and millions cannot afford to eat.”

The menus in full

Dinner

Corn-stuffed caviar

Smoked salmon and sea urchin "pain surprise" style

Hot onion tart

Winter lily bulb and summer savoury

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Folding fan modelled tray decorated with bamboo grasses

including

Kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto beef "shabu-shabu", asparagus dressed with sesame cream

Diced fatty flesh of tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce and Japanese herb "shiso"

Boiled clam, tomato, "shiso" in jellied clear soup of clam

Water shield and pickled conger dressed with vinegar soy sauce

Boiled prawn with jellied tosazu vinegar

Grilled eel rolled around burdock strip

Sweet potato

Fried and seasoned Goby with soy sauce and sugar

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Hairy Crab "Kegani" bisque soup

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Salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with vinegary water pepper sauce

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Milk fed "shiranuka" lamb flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard

Roasted lamb and cepes and black truffle with emulsion sauce of lamb's stock and pine seed oil

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Special cheese selection, lavender honey and caramelised nuts

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G8 fantasy dessert

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Coffee served with candied fruits and vegetables

Wine list

Le Reve grand cru champagne

Japanese saki

Corton Charlemagne 2005

Chateau Latour burgundy

Ridge California Monte Bello 1997

Tokaji Essencia 1999 from Hungary

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