Buffett Buffet: A Pricey Meal

Last year's winner, Zhao, was questioned by some after he mentioned to the press that he had recommended a stock (WuMart) to Buffett during their conversation. He touted it as the Wal-Mart(WMT Quote) of China and was reported to make a $14 million profit after the stock jumped 25% based on its association with Buffett's name. Zhao denied that he had been pumping the stock.

This year's winning firm, Salida Capital, describes itself as following a top-down global macro strategy, meaning that it invests based on macroeconomic themes, rather than following a bottom-up value investing approach that Buffett is famous for.

Its president, Courtenay Wolfe, was hired about a year ago with a mandate to better market the firm and raise assets. Her background is sales and marketing, with her biggest career achievement according to her bio being launching Dell's (DELL Quote) Web-based sales effort in Canada in 1996 at the beginning of the first tech bubble.

When Wolfe was asked about the questions she planned to ask Buffett during the lunch, she said she didn't know: "We have eight months now to figure that out."

Asked about what her investors thought about spending almost $2 million on the lunch, Wolfe said she believed that they thought it would make them better managers -- sort of like taking a two-hour off-site training course with good food.

What's clear is that Wolfe figured out winning the Buffett lunch auction was a great way of getting the name Salida Capital in front of potential investors globally. Whether the media exposure will actually lead to more assets for the company remains to be seen. According to Canada's national newspaper, the Globe & Mail of Toronto, the company is eligible to write off the $1.7 million expense as a charitable donation.