Your humble narrator isn't the biggest fan of ultra fancy dining. A fancy meal every so often allows you to grow as a dining human being. Fancy is fine but ultra fancy is more theatre and art than food, especially at those prices.
My friend IRL Monica Eng covers the food industry for a long time in different formats. Eng recently wrote about Charlie Trotter tribute dinners run by Grant Achatz.
In Chicago high dining circles. Charlie Trotter and Grant Achatz were and are well-known names. If you want to be seen as being cool, then you would dive into this opportunity. "Hey, look. I got into this exclusive experience. You didn't. I am better than you."
Eng points out the cost for the tribute dinners (Trotter died in 2013) is $175-$235 per person. This does not count tax, tip, and drinks. From the article: "Wine pairings, starting with Champagne and ending with port, range from $135 to $345 for ultra reserve vintages. Non-alcoholic pairings cost $75." I suppose a Mexican Coca-Cola is out of the question.
Trotter and Achatz's restaurants (Achatz worked at Charlie Trotter's restaurant) are about pageantry and being seen more than the food itself. You pay through the nose for that luxury.
You get some fancy food, not much on any one plate:
"The meal starts with a ring of Osetra caviar, sea urchin, vodka créme fraiche and daikon that sings of the sea with a whisper of fruity sweetness. Other standout courses include:
- Summer-kissed heirloom tomato soup with crunchy dried tomato bits and an avocado coriander sorbet.
- A slice of rare venison over shredded oxtail infused with cherry juice and surrounded by a rich mole and cashew vinaigrette.
- Buttery Peruvian sea bass over chanterelles and a veal reduction.
- Puddingy banana bread, laced with warm chocolate ganache and topped with a coconut cookie, ripe bananas and malt ice cream that I still can't stop thinking about."
The article shows some pictures. Eng said in the article, "No, you will not still be hungry after this meal. If I was full, anyone would be full." She is likely correct, simply because there are a number of courses. The goal shouldn't be all you can eat at a family style restaurant. When you paying a lot for fancy food, the portions will be tiny. That is a key part of the panache.
One of the lures of the tribute dinners is to meet like-minded people who did Trotter's when that restaurant was still active. Perhaps you can't — or won't — put a price on that kind of experience.
The lure of eating at a restaurant with a celebrity chef
Don't fall for a restaurant that says it is 'approachable'
That isn't what food should really be. Art and performance can be in that realm. Food should be reasonably approachable. You can go to museums and see some of the greatest art in the world. Of course, museums are financially subsidized.
The costs are ridiculous yet the money is only part of the issue. You can go to Chez Panisse in Berkeley (lunch in the photo at the top of this column) and pay a lot for a very good meal. Lunches upstairs are cheaper than dinner downstairs. You could go to Swan Oyster Depot on Polk Street in San Francisco, pay a lot of money (cash only) for some amazing seafood. The ambiance is way more casual so bragging rights aren't a big deal.
You could find a quality place and spend $100-$125 (per person) for a very nice meal with wine. A nice quiet meal with no publicity.
Theoretically, one could participate new in this process, dish out the money. If they even think in their head that they didn't get value for the money, one can't say it was so-so. You have to praise what you consumed, regardless of the reality. That doesn't sound encouraging.
What's Tempting: Recreating spirit of Chez Panisse
What's Tempting: Chez Panisse for lunch
The design of the Charlie Trotter original and tribute experiences is to be exclusive, not inclusive, even more than just fancy dining. They are considered great chefs not because of the way they cook or how the dishes turn out but by charging large sums of money for that exclusive experience.
If I am ever in Cetara, Italy on the Amalfi Coast south of Naples, I am headed for Al Convento, Pasquale Torrente’s place featured with Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations. I wouldn't care how much the bill would be. All of the dishes Bourdain ordered looked so good. Cetara is known for local anchovies.
A memorable meal with a beautiful ocean view. I would take pictures and show them on social media. No one around me would be bragging that they were there because of the company, just the food. I want to dine out for the food and not some fancy exclusivity.
BalanceofFood.com travel coverage
"A two-hour meal of eight set courses introduced by servers explaining how the elements reflect Trotter's passion for jazz, Japanese cooking, game meat, seasonal produce and even Nancy Silverton's panna cotta."
Ultra fancy dining requires a level of trust of epic proportions. If you had a boatload of money AND a lot of trust in Charlie Trotter, you would likely salivate at the above description. You have to trust Achatz and the others who put together the tribute dinners maybe even more than Trotter.
I do struggle with trust, especially in food relationships. I trust Alice Waters now but there was a time when I didn't have that trust.
This is the difference between fancy dining and ultra fancy dining. I can trust fancy dining for an occasional treat. I struggle to trust ultra fancy dining, even if I had the money to justify an evening's meal.
photo credits: me; No Reservations