World leaders are not renowned for their modest wine selections or reticence at the G8 summit's cheese board. True to form, discussing the global food crisis spiralling grocery prices in the developed world and starvation in Africa was clearly hungry work that left their stomachs rumbling.

G8 premiers and their wives sat down for an eight-course Marie Antoinette-style ''Blessings of the Earth and the Sea Social Dinner'', courtesy of the Japanese Government.

The global food shortage was not evident. As the champagne flowed, the couples enjoyed 18 ''higher-quality ingredients'', beginning with amuse-bouche of corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin pain-surprise-style, hot onion tart and winter lily bulbs.

The second course read like a meal in itself: kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto beef shabu-shabu, with asparagus dressed with sesame cream; diced fatty flesh of tuna fish, with avocado and jellied soy sauce and the Japanese herb shiso; boiled clam, tomato and shiso in jellied clear soup of clam; water shield and pink conger dressed with a vinegary soy sauce; boiled prawn with jellied tosazu-vinegar; grilled eel rolled around burdock strip; sweet potato; and fried and seasoned goby with soy sauce.

That was followed by a hairy crab kegani bisque-style soup and salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with a vinegary water pepper sauce. The main course brought the ''meat sweats'' poele of milk-fed lamb flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard, as well as roasted lamb with black truffle and pine seed oil sauce. For the cheese course, the Japanese offered a special selection with lavender honey and caramelised nuts. It was followed by a ''G8 fantasy dessert'' and coffee served with candied fruits and vegetables.

This was washed down with champagne and fine wines, including sake. Independent