<story><title>Confessions of a Michelin Star Inspector</title><url>https://www.luxeat.com/blog/confessions-of-a-michelin-inspector/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pjc50</author><text>&amp;gt; The difference would be completely lost on them.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve definitely heard the life advice to avoid trying this kind of thing in case you &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; like it, then everything less is permanently tainted with the knowledge that it&amp;#x27;s not as good.&lt;p&gt;However, western super-high-price dining tends to be one or both of &amp;quot;demoscene for food&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;NFTs for food&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;- demoscene: a series of increasingly elaborate and labor-intensive techniques for showcasing skill in a constrained environment. The Heston Blumenthal&amp;#x2F;molecular gastronomy approach.&lt;p&gt;- NFTs: the process entirely about conspicuous consumption; the value of the food is determined by how many resources were expended in the process, not what it actually tastes like. Wines in particular have a value determined by rarity and the secondary market.&lt;p&gt;The best compromise is probably found around the &amp;quot;twice as much as a chain restaurant&amp;quot; price point; enough to find quality ingredients and staff who aren&amp;#x27;t too rushed off their feet, not enough that you start getting weird stunts.&lt;p&gt;(a fun read: Jay Rayner&amp;#x27;s negative review of the Polo Lounge &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;food&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;aug&amp;#x2F;15&amp;#x2F;the-polo-lounge-at-the-dorchester-hotel-dismal-food-at-eye-popping-prices-restaurant-review&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;food&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;aug&amp;#x2F;15&amp;#x2F;the-polo-lounge...&lt;/a&gt; )</text></item><item><author>jiggawatts</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been to two Michelin-starred Sushi places in Japan. I thought they were both amazing, but I realised that my parents would not have thought so.&lt;p&gt;They grew up relatively poor, and still have the habit of eating at home from a rotating menu of relatively straightforward recipes. Stews, soups, that kind of thing. They&amp;#x27;ve gone to restaurants maybe a few dozen times in their &lt;i&gt;lives&lt;/i&gt;, if that.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to so many Sushi restaurants in so many cities that I have a nice smooth gradient of ratings along which I can place them. I can recognise and appreciate the small touches like real wasabi or expensive sake. The fancy places in Japan extended that experience just past the upper end of what I&amp;#x27;ve experienced before. I could place them in &lt;i&gt;context&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;My parents tried a Sushi train... once. A $300 sushi set would be wasted on them, because they would be just as happy with a $50 sushi set. The difference would be completely lost on them.</text></item><item><author>tomcam</author><text>Went to Paris and dined at a number of Michelin-starred places, including Le Cinq. The food was fine, but... I didn&amp;#x27;t get it! I think there is a culinary language that I understand as little as a typical Michelin-starred chef would be able to evaluate a tightly-written C program. On the other hand I was lucky enough to dine at Poppy Seattle every year of its existence and felt their completely original approach to thalis would have absolutely merited three stars. Poppy was well known to be one of the best restaurants in town, but I still wonder how I would have reacted if I understand the language better.&lt;p&gt;To calibrate, on a scale of 1-10 I would rate Cheesecake Factory and Starbucks food at a 3, Tim Horton and McDonald&amp;#x27;s at 4, and Olive Garden at 6. I&amp;#x27;d put LeCinq at 8 and Poppy at 10.&lt;p&gt;My wife has more sophisticated taste. She though 3 stars for LeCinq made sense. I have double-blind tested her a number of times and her taste is unerring, including one trial where she correctly guessed Osetra, Beluga, and Sevruga caviar back when they were all legal, and 4 different kinds of Wagyu beef at a steakhouse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stdbrouw</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;ve definitely heard the life advice to avoid trying this kind of thing in case you do like it, then everything less is permanently tainted with the knowledge that it&amp;#x27;s not as good.&lt;p&gt;Does that actually happen though? I know a thing or two about wine and sometimes buy bottles in the 50-100 euro range, which I feel are totally worth it, but I&amp;#x27;m still happy to drink cheap plonk with friends most of the time. This works because (1) you forget about what the high end experience was like quite quickly and&amp;#x2F;or (2) you drink it in a very specific setting so you&amp;#x27;re not likely to conclude &amp;quot;I now always need&amp;#x2F;want this&amp;quot; and (3) a lot of what makes high end cuisine &amp;#x2F; wine &amp;#x2F; spirits so fun to try is not just that they&amp;#x27;re better but that they&amp;#x27;re different from what you&amp;#x27;re used to, the scale is not just worst-best but also ordinary-extraordinary, and you&amp;#x27;re not always in the mood for extraordinary.&lt;p&gt;My guess would be that the phenomenon of permanently hankering for the good stuff after having tried it once is probably more likely to happen with everyday luxuries: good bread, slightly-above-average wine, etc. And in that case, you get a little bit more enjoyment out of your food for a little bit more money, which seems like a fair deal. But even in that case, I don&amp;#x27;t know anyone who, after trying craft beer, has vowed to never drink a cheap pilsner again.</text></comment>
<story><title>Confessions of a Michelin Star Inspector</title><url>https://www.luxeat.com/blog/confessions-of-a-michelin-inspector/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pjc50</author><text>&amp;gt; The difference would be completely lost on them.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve definitely heard the life advice to avoid trying this kind of thing in case you &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; like it, then everything less is permanently tainted with the knowledge that it&amp;#x27;s not as good.&lt;p&gt;However, western super-high-price dining tends to be one or both of &amp;quot;demoscene for food&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;NFTs for food&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;- demoscene: a series of increasingly elaborate and labor-intensive techniques for showcasing skill in a constrained environment. The Heston Blumenthal&amp;#x2F;molecular gastronomy approach.&lt;p&gt;- NFTs: the process entirely about conspicuous consumption; the value of the food is determined by how many resources were expended in the process, not what it actually tastes like. Wines in particular have a value determined by rarity and the secondary market.&lt;p&gt;The best compromise is probably found around the &amp;quot;twice as much as a chain restaurant&amp;quot; price point; enough to find quality ingredients and staff who aren&amp;#x27;t too rushed off their feet, not enough that you start getting weird stunts.&lt;p&gt;(a fun read: Jay Rayner&amp;#x27;s negative review of the Polo Lounge &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;food&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;aug&amp;#x2F;15&amp;#x2F;the-polo-lounge-at-the-dorchester-hotel-dismal-food-at-eye-popping-prices-restaurant-review&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;food&amp;#x2F;2021&amp;#x2F;aug&amp;#x2F;15&amp;#x2F;the-polo-lounge...&lt;/a&gt; )</text></item><item><author>jiggawatts</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been to two Michelin-starred Sushi places in Japan. I thought they were both amazing, but I realised that my parents would not have thought so.&lt;p&gt;They grew up relatively poor, and still have the habit of eating at home from a rotating menu of relatively straightforward recipes. Stews, soups, that kind of thing. They&amp;#x27;ve gone to restaurants maybe a few dozen times in their &lt;i&gt;lives&lt;/i&gt;, if that.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to so many Sushi restaurants in so many cities that I have a nice smooth gradient of ratings along which I can place them. I can recognise and appreciate the small touches like real wasabi or expensive sake. The fancy places in Japan extended that experience just past the upper end of what I&amp;#x27;ve experienced before. I could place them in &lt;i&gt;context&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;My parents tried a Sushi train... once. A $300 sushi set would be wasted on them, because they would be just as happy with a $50 sushi set. The difference would be completely lost on them.</text></item><item><author>tomcam</author><text>Went to Paris and dined at a number of Michelin-starred places, including Le Cinq. The food was fine, but... I didn&amp;#x27;t get it! I think there is a culinary language that I understand as little as a typical Michelin-starred chef would be able to evaluate a tightly-written C program. On the other hand I was lucky enough to dine at Poppy Seattle every year of its existence and felt their completely original approach to thalis would have absolutely merited three stars. Poppy was well known to be one of the best restaurants in town, but I still wonder how I would have reacted if I understand the language better.&lt;p&gt;To calibrate, on a scale of 1-10 I would rate Cheesecake Factory and Starbucks food at a 3, Tim Horton and McDonald&amp;#x27;s at 4, and Olive Garden at 6. I&amp;#x27;d put LeCinq at 8 and Poppy at 10.&lt;p&gt;My wife has more sophisticated taste. She though 3 stars for LeCinq made sense. I have double-blind tested her a number of times and her taste is unerring, including one trial where she correctly guessed Osetra, Beluga, and Sevruga caviar back when they were all legal, and 4 different kinds of Wagyu beef at a steakhouse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Scoundreller</author><text>&amp;gt; demoscene: a series of increasingly elaborate and labor-intensive techniques for showcasing skill in a constrained environment. The Heston Blumenthal&amp;#x2F;molecular gastronomy approach.&lt;p&gt;I’d add on: anything that’s difficult&amp;#x2F;time-consuming&amp;#x2F;etc. to make at home even if you could, but scale makes it a lot easier.&lt;p&gt;I know a Ukrainian guy that, without fail, orders borscht if it’s on the menu. He could make it himself, but his wife forbids him from stinking up the house with beets and cabbage for the afternoon it takes to prepare.</text></comment>