3 ms·

> It's not that it has to be 'better' than the best $12 bbq joint you've ever been to, just different. On the one hand, no. It really, really, really does need

> It's not that it has to be 'better' than the best $12 bbq joint you've ever been to, just different. On the one hand, no. It really, really, really does need to be qualitatively better food than you can get cheaply. (Especially for a Michelin star, the awarding of which still tends to somewhat resist the reality distortion field around gold-encrusted steaks). On the other hand, it is motivated reasoning like this kind of thing that gave us Jay Rayner's (wonderfully withering but occasionally joyful) restaurant columns in the Guardian. It's an absurdity (and a moral hazard, IMO) to ask for people's hard-earned money for food and then not give them food that is better, not just different. (And just as I expected, I am being modded down for this -- go for it guys)

2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
I guess that's why the word "better" is in quotes. I've never been to a fancy restaurant and been served food that was cooked worse. It's always been cooked better on any objective measure. But there are quite a lot of dishes that I wouldn't want to eat everyday even if I could afford to. Sometimes it's even been a bit lacklustre even though if you had to look at all the elements, it was all superbly done.
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  > I've never been to a fancy restaurant and been served food that was cooked worse. I have, and it's not like I make a habit of fancy restaurants (I'm a freelancer so I don't make a habit of fancy _anything_ now.) There's a lot of motivated reasoning around food and wine. People who tell me they can't cook and then cook me a meal are proportionately more likely to outdo the expectations they set than a high-end restaurant; some of the best meals I have had have come from people who tell me they can cook only three things. Coffee shops often serve coffee that tastes worse than an aeropress at home, but costs more than a whole month's worth of good beans. Home coffee "experts" who are surrounded by the acquisitions of their motivated reasoning don't improve over that aeropress either. And even Aeropress experts make Aeropress coffee worse with their optimisations. Wine tasting experts sometimes can't tell the difference between red and white wines in blind taste tests, and yet still insist that reds and whites have specific associations. Fans of "fine dining" are often in the same zone. Expensive meals in restaurants have a veneer of quality even when the food is average and the service is objectively worse than an Angus Steakhouse. The truth is that -- like buying your fiancé a diamond ring -- the consumer often falls for their own motivated reasoning, either in making the purchase in the first place or post-justifying it afterwards. One thing makes food better: eating it with friends or loved ones. And you can do that with sandwiches on a park bench.

2muchcoffeeman 5y ago

I guess that's why the word "better" is in quotes. I've never been to a fancy restaurant and been served food that was cooked worse. It's always been cooked better on any objective measure. But there are quite a lot of dishes that I wouldn't want to eat everyday even if I could afford to. Sometimes it's even been a bit lacklustre even though if you had to look at all the elements, it was all superbly done.

unfocussed_mike 5y ago
> I've never been to a fancy restaurant and been served food that was cooked worse. I have, and it's not like I make a habit of fancy restaurants (I'm a freelancer so I don't make a habit of fancy _anything_ now.) There's a lot of motivated reasoning around food and wine. People who tell me they can't cook and then cook me a meal are proportionately more likely to outdo the expectations they set than a high-end restaurant; some of the best meals I have had have come from people who tell me they can cook only three things. Coffee shops often serve coffee that tastes worse than an aeropress at home, but costs more than a whole month's worth of good beans. Home coffee "experts" who are surrounded by the acquisitions of their motivated reasoning don't improve over that aeropress either. And even Aeropress experts make Aeropress coffee worse with their optimisations. Wine tasting experts sometimes can't tell the difference between red and white wines in blind taste tests, and yet still insist that reds and whites have specific associations. Fans of "fine dining" are often in the same zone. Expensive meals in restaurants have a veneer of quality even when the food is average and the service is objectively worse than an Angus Steakhouse. The truth is that -- like buying your fiancé a diamond ring -- the consumer often falls for their own motivated reasoning, either in making the purchase in the first place or post-justifying it afterwards. One thing makes food better: eating it with friends or loved ones. And you can do that with sandwiches on a park bench.