[Barron]

Anyone notice the type of people prominently featured in Food Media lately? Notice how the "food critics" (second proclaimed profession of every social science grad) who write reviews and pride themselves on frequenting high-end dining establishments tend to look like liberal freaks?

At what point is the boundary of ridiculous crossed when taking into account how much is needed to adequately prepare, present, and consume a nice meal? I just got done watching a season of Chef's Kitchen and while what goes on in Michelin-grade kitchens is interesting to me, I underestimated how utterly cucked the chefs and self-congratulating patrons being featured would look.

I appreciate a nice meal (restaurant or home-cooked) just as much as anyone, but the chefs and restaurants Food media are promoting as dominant in the upscale dining scene look like the most cucked beta or raging portland lesbo fresh out of a gender studies "master" program I've ever seen.

Vice's disgrace of a YouTube channel features a plethora of debt-ridden lefties working in kitchens masquerading as gourmet cooks. Except for Gordon Ramsay I don't know of any alpha Michelin chefs that exist in the west. When did Cultural Marxism start dominating high-end dining?

[The Beast1]

Personally, I can't stand most "high class" dining restaurants.

For one, i leave hungry. The portions are never enough and it's instead an art piece.

Two, the food doesn't really taste good. In europe, the food in most high end restaurants is ok, in most American high end restaurants it's utter trash. I cook better than these guys.

As much as I loathe them, the hipsters really do know good food. Again, i cook better at home.

[Kid Twist]

^ I second the leaving hungry thing.

I lift weights and am not a woman.

Add tapas and other small plates bullshit to the list.

[FlyHigher123]

Alex Atala from Brazil probably fits what you want. He gets his ingredients himself in the jungle and also does MMA.

[John Michael Kane]

I've had meals all over the spectrum in terms of cost. The best value, portion size and quality usually is to be found at mid-end restaurants. Past a certain point you are just paying for extra faggotry and Instagram bragging rights. Give me a solid meal for $15, $20, $25 paired with a single malt scotch, beer or moderately priced wine. You can keep the attitude problems and the triple digit credit card tab.

[bushcraft9]

Where I live the restuarants scene is pretty alpha, mainly frequented by males who have probably just blasted some wild boar with their 12 guages and the women are pretty much where they are meant to be in the kitchens in the house cooking this evening's supper. Most backstreet bars where I live, far off the tourist trail, will cook you some of the best food you have ever eaten, at excellent prices too. Forget that high end rubbish.

[dicknixon72]

(12-20-2016 04:34 PM)John Michael Kane Wrote:  

I've had meals all over the spectrum in terms of cost. The best value, portion size and quality usually is to be found at mid-end restaurants. Past a certain point you are just paying for extra faggotry and Instagram bragging rights. Give me a solid meal for $15, $20, $25 paired with a single malt scotch, beer or moderately priced wine. You can keep the attitude problems and the triple digit credit card tab.

Absolutely correct.

As with most goods/services, there exists a tipping point where anything beyond has a yuge diminishing rate of return.

Is a Mercedes $25,000 better than a Chevrolet? Possibly, sure. Is a Bentley better than Mercedes? Yes. Is it $150k better? I would argue no.

[Vicious]

Just to clarify, what are examples of what people are considering "high-end dining" here? Most NYC/Chicago steakhouses are high-end and if you're leaving hungry from these places you must be The Hulk or Lindy West.

[Easy_C]

It's always been that way.

One of the few positive things I will say about liberals is that they usually bring good food along with them(As is to be expected from hedonists, which is really what they're all about).

[John Michael Kane]

(12-23-2016 05:09 PM)Vicious Wrote:  

Just to clarify, what are examples of what people are considering "high-end dining" here? Most NYC/Chicago steakhouses are high-end and if you're leaving hungry from these places you must be The Hulk or Lindy West.

Been to Chicago steakhouses. You will be full.

I'm thinking more about fancy French restaurants on Michigan Ave with tiny portions and narcissistic proprietors. The first is OK, the second I can do without. It isn't even about price. A lot of those meals I had for free on a corporate tab. It is the attitude.

Vicious is also dead on about diminished returns past s certain point regarding cost versus value.

[Veloce]

I couldn't agree more. One thing I do NOT miss about LA is the food scene I was in. I've worked with Voltaggio and a handful of other "celebrity chefs" and there's just so much self-congratulatory faggotry it makes my skin crawl.

I see a lot of fine dining as a symptom of "Rome's Last Days". Like if people are willing to spend this much on a bunch of $13/hour dipshits in back playing with edible flowers, something is wrong. I call food like that flower arranging, not cooking.

I've dropped small fortunes on a handful of meals that I do not regret though. L'Ambroisie in Paris, Urasawa in LA, Brooklyn Fare in NYC, and just got back from dropping some cash in Tokyo at some of the best sushi restaurants in the city (and by extension, the world). Your top end spots in Tokyo go for around $200 per person and in the context of international fine dining I consider that a bargain. There's no superfluous garnishes here, I'd say all of the chefs at these spots are old school itamae that have busted their asses and their lifetime perfecting their craft, following the shokunin ideal.

But I've also eaten at a lot of high end spots that were all smoke and mirrors. Hell I'm not even a fan of the food I cook in Vegas, but we have a certain clientele that expects certain things. Most Western chefs hate their own cooking and go out for late night asian food after work. There's something inherently wrong with that. If I owned my own restaurant I'd want to serve the food I love to eat.

The thing to realize is that a lot of these faggot tattoo-ridden chefs are just giving the people what they want. Pretty food that looks good on instagram with recovered wood tables, Mumford and Sons on the soundtrack, and some sneering bitch of a hostess with menu descriptions like "28 day aged pigeon baked in hay, emmer wheat, beet confit, huckleberry jus"

There's still a few chefs I admire and respect though, like Francis Mallman. Eccentric dude that's open about having many lovers, travels a lot, and cooks very simple food over live fire.

[H1N1]

(12-24-2016 09:19 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

I couldn't agree more. One thing I do NOT miss about LA is the food scene I was in. I've worked with Voltaggio and a handful of other "celebrity chefs" and there's just so much self-congratulatory faggotry it makes my skin crawl.

I see a lot of fine dining as a symptom of "Rome's Last Days". Like if people are willing to spend this much on a bunch of $13/hour dipshits in back playing with edible flowers, something is wrong. I call food like that flower arranging, not cooking.

I've dropped small fortunes on a handful of meals that I do not regret though. L'Ambroisie in Paris, Urasawa in LA, Brooklyn Fare in NYC, and just got back from dropping some cash in Tokyo at some of the best sushi restaurants in the city (and by extension, the world). Your top end spots in Tokyo go for around $200 per person and in the context of international fine dining I consider that a bargain. There's no superfluous garnishes here, I'd say all of the chefs at these spots are old school itamae that have busted their asses and their lifetime perfecting their craft, following the shokunin ideal.

But I've also eaten at a lot of high end spots that were all smoke and mirrors. Hell I'm not even a fan of the food I cook in Vegas, but we have a certain clientele that expects certain things. Most Western chefs hate their own cooking and go out for late night asian food after work. There's something inherently wrong with that. If I owned my own restaurant I'd want to serve the food I love to eat.

The thing to realize is that a lot of these faggot tattoo-ridden chefs are just giving the people what they want. Pretty food that looks good on instagram with recovered wood tables, Mumford and Sons on the soundtrack, and some sneering bitch of a hostess with menu descriptions like "28 day aged pigeon baked in hay, emmer wheat, beet confit, huckleberry jus"

There's still a few chefs I admire and respect though, like Francis Mallman. Eccentric dude that's open about having many lovers, travels a lot, and cooks very simple food over live fire.

Mallman is awesome - One of my favourites. Marcus Wareing is pretty good, I think, as is Gordon Ramsay - these guys are actually about the food rather than the bullshit.

[weambulance]

(12-24-2016 09:19 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

But I've also eaten at a lot of high end spots that were all smoke and mirrors. Hell I'm not even a fan of the food I cook in Vegas, but we have a certain clientele that expects certain things. Most Western chefs hate their own cooking and go out for late night asian food after work. There's something inherently wrong with that. If I owned my own restaurant I'd want to serve the food I love to eat.

Do you think that might be because of overexposure to the food they cook?

I'm a halfway decent cook and I enjoy it a lot, but I never enjoy food I cook as much as comparable food cooked by someone else. Pretty often, I'll find my own cooking kinda "meh" but get showered with compliments for the meal.

I suspect it's because I'm around the aromas so much during the cooking that my palate is a bit dented by the time the food is actually done. Not sure what I can do about it without some way of keeping the meal warm and taking a break between finishing cooking and eating.