"Page 270 of Superclass. “[At Davos], Another of the most interesting and respected dinners is hosted by Victor Halberstadt and his wife, Masha, who is an accomplished painter. Somes Halberstadt will have a chef flown in especially for dinners. He deftly runs it like a salon: At some point early in the dinner he interrupts and says, “let’s start this,” and welcomes everyone, describes with great humour who they are and what they have recently achieved, and then provokes an always fascinating discussion. So for example, he says, Jean Claude Trichet tell us, how do you see Europe’s main economic vulnerabilities? Or to Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf, What do you think will happen to the Chinese currency? or You, Mr. Minister of Finance of Turkey, what are the repercussions of the Iraq war in your country? And so on. “The dinner has a strong European flavor, as it normally includes the CEOs of Heineken, Royal Dutch Shell, Phillips, and other major European firms. But Victor always managed to also attract the smartest Russians, Americans and Middle Easterners at the dinner, as well as some of the most interesting academics and media leaders. It is not just who goes to that dinner but the extraordinary way in which he managed to have everyone exchange very interesting information that you would not otherwise get just reading the newspapers or going to the formal sessions."