Is Fine Dining Worth Over $1,000?
Questioning the value of one meal
We recently spent over $1,000 on a dinner for two. It was the most expensive meal of my life. While reviewing the experience, I questioned: is fine dining ever worth over $1,000?
If you’re interested in the details of our experience at New York City’s Eleven Madison Park, watch the video below. Otherwise, let’s dive into if and when fine dining is warranted.
Fine dining is storytelling
At its core, fine dining is storytelling.
People go to some restaurants for fuel. They’re hungry and need sustenance.
Fine dining is different. You don’t go for fuel unless you have serious money to blow.
Most people go because they want an experience. An adventure.
They want to be “wowed.” They want to be taken on a journey by the chef and his or her team.
They want an experience they won’t forget.
How to guarantee patrons will remember the experience forever? Tell a great story.
Fine dining is like any great art - the best artists weave in a narrative that captivates the imagination and soul.
A superhero movie may be action-packed and entertaining, but do you think about it days, weeks, or months later?
A YouTube video suffering from MrBeast-ification may fill you with dopamine for ten minutes, but does it move you emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually?
There’s a time and a place for fast food, easy dinners, and simple meals that fill the belly. But there are also special moments that demand grand and exciting adventures; experiences to be shared with loved ones and friends, or even with just yourself.
Whether it’s celebrating a momentous occasion or celebrating simply being alive.
From beginning to end, a great fine dining experience will tell a story that reminds you how amazing life can be. It will shock and awe.
Surprise. Delight.
Great fine dining tells the story of terroir, the environment the wines come from, and the story of the food.
Where it was sourced. Its cultural significance. Its beauty.
As I summarized in my review of MFK Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me:
[F]ood is not merely fuel or a list of ingredients, but something to be enjoyed. It is a vehicle to gain understanding about a person, place, or culture. Food captures memories and teaches us not only about history, but about ourselves. Hunger is not merely a craving, but something to be understood and embraced.
Fine dining may be the ultimate vehicle for great culinary storytelling, but it is also something more.
Fine dining is the height of civilization
Name another experience where you can escape the trials and tribulations of the world for a few hours and immerse yourself in a story.
Better yet, a theatrical performance where you get to participate.
A stage is set in front of you, with the food playing the actors and the restaurant staff playing the stage crew. The executive chef oversees all of it like a director.
And you get to taste and experience it all firsthand!
In many other forms of art, you’re merely an observer. A passive participant.
In fine dining, you’re actively involved. You’re constantly asked for feedback. You’re encouraged to engage with the performance in a way that’s most comfortable for you.
Fine dining is the height of civilization because it’s evidence we’ve reached the point in society where we can go beyond merely sustaining ourselves. We don’t have to eat simply for fuel. We can eat for pleasure, and that’s perfectly acceptable.
Fine dining demonstrates how we’ve evolved from caveman origins to an elevated state of life. Where food transcends mere nutritious craving and becomes something more: something to bring us together.
It’s one of the greatest tools of empathy that we have.
And while you certainly do not need to spend $1,000 to experience or learn that empathy, fine dining provides a special opportunity to consume those lessons from the best culinary and hospitality techniques known to man.
It has the power to change the way you see the world.
Fine dining is worth it, but not always
Perhaps I am overly romanticizing it. Not all fine dining experiences are the same, after all.
Our experiences at Restaurant Daniel were different from those at Eleven Madison Park.
Some fine dining restaurants get lazy. Others overcharge. Many can be all style and little substance.
While it may not always be perfect, the point remains - we need fine dining. In a world with increasingly less formality, less evening attire, and less overt displays of grandeur, fine dining still has its place.
It’s more than a superficial designer logo or a flashy display of opulence. Fine dining is art at the highest level.
Elevated experiences come at a cost. A great storyteller cannot work for free, after all.
So while $1,000 may be excessive to some, others may be thrilled to pay that for an experience that could change their life; an experience that could evoke tastes, feelings, and memories that were never felt or were once forgotten.
For a few hours, you’re transported to another time and place.
The world continues to evolve and change. Formalities have noticeably declined in the past few decades. Fine dining has had to adapt.
But so long as it stays true to the storytelling that makes it unique and special, it will always retain its honored place in society.
That emotional and empathetic power is priceless.
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