Is the modern tasting menu paradigm played out?

With Noma closing I've seen a few ruminations on its potential as a bellwether (or death knell) for the evolution of the $400 tasting menu with its requisite gauntlet of butt-numbing seats, medieval litany of courses, asinine serving vessels, and conspicuous consumption.

As chef René Redzepi told the NYT, “It’s unsustainable...Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.” The Menu, for all of its de rigueur dialogue flaws, does have its finger on the cold aesthetic. (I feel like I've been served personally by the Elsa character, best performance in the film).

In the same breath / bite, bespoke omakase seems like it is on the rise. And in October this past year, we ate at Owamni in the Twin Cities (review forthcoming), where you're encouraged to build your own tasting, prices are kept bracingly reasonable, and non-reservable terrace seats are maintained for all days in the hopes that patrons, especially from the communities the kitchen represents, will come to enjoy on an impromptu basis without the barrier-to-entry of a six-month reservation lead time. It has been heralded as the finest restaurant in the country. I might be on board with that appellation.

LTH has always embraced both the mom-and-pop and chef-auteur-session models. For the futurists out there, do you think the Noma closure will be just a blip on the radar, or are other Michelin multi-stars an endangered species this next decade? Are we moving as a society past gels and tweezers, or are they ossifying the way Ivy Style has, and we'll be looking at the same upper tier dining room format in 2089 as 1989? And can anyone get me a reservation at Dorsia?

Le Trott' est mort, vive le Trott'!

Santander wrote:As chef René Redzepi told the NYT, “It’s unsustainable...Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.”

I totally agree. The form feels like a bloated, dated parody of itself. Maybe it's not dead but it certainly seems to have long-since peaked; a descent catalyzed by covid.

Santander wrote:The Menu, for all of its de rigueur dialogue flaws, does have its finger on the cold aesthetic. (I feel like I've been served personally by the Elsa character, best performance in the film).

Yes and yes. The depiction of Elsa character was brilliant, brought to life beautifully by Hong Chau and some astutely detailed writing. Absolutely my favorite part of the film.

=R=

While my habits have changed and fine dining spots aren't as appealing to me, i think there will always be a place for it in the restaurant spectrum. Feel like people will always seek that type of dining out because this type of dining will continue to be considered the "best".

Whats interesting to me is that most of the reasons Redzepi gave for the pivot stems back to financial burden. And if any restaurant could withstand a large increase in menu prices, it's Noma. Would've been a fascinating experiment to see them double or even triple prices.

Exploring Owamni's website is pretty interesting. The menu is very limited and quite reasonably priced. Perhaps I'm projecting here, but there seems to be an effort to limit the restaurant's becoming an article of conspicuous consumption.
Reservations are available up to 2 months in advance, no more. It appears that there's no prepay or deposit required to reserve. Tables are definitely scarce; there are a few early bird weekday dinner seats in March. Unfortunately, there is a secondary market with reservations going for well over $100. The bar and outdoor terrace (probably usable late April-September in Minneapolis) are open seating. I wonder what the lines are like? And can customers, as they supposedly could at Hot Doug's, hire a line-waiting-substitute?
Another rather barbed point from the website: There are walking directions plus advice that there is metered street parking nearby. No valet for that Bugatti or Escalade!
Judging by photos on Yelp, the food is attractively plated but not precious. Tableware looks to be what one would find at a somewhat upscale bistro. As far as I can tell, alcoholic beverages are not available.
Kudos to them if this is America's best restaurant. Seems like a place for dining rather than a place to say one dined.

From today’s Trib:

Even though it has only been open for a few months, Indienne already offers one of Chicago’s most exciting and pleasurable tasting menu experiences. It’s also one of the city’s most reasonably priced. At $95 for the vegetarian tasting menu and $105 for the Chef’s Tasting menu, a dinner here is nearly $200 less than several fine-dining spots in town. Combinations don’t get much more alluring.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/r ... story.html

More on Noma's pivot by Chef Rob Anderson at The Atlantic's website . . .

The truth is that the kind of high-end dining Noma exemplifies is abusive, disingenuous, and unethical. Chefs know it but continue to imitate Redzepi. The food media know it but continue to celebrate his kind of food. Wealthy diners know it but continue to book tables en masse—if not at Noma, than at comparable destination restaurants around the world.

Will Noma’s End Teach Chefs and Diners Anything?

=R=

Interesting that El Bulli, during its day, was probably the most praised restaurant among food writers. Is it now becoming the fashion to be to criticize such ventures? If so, I think it reflects more of a change amongst food writers than the dining public.

I also think it fuzzy to lump all tasting menus together. I think the difference between a $75 meal (common for fine dining) and a $150 meal (many tasting menus are in this range) is at least as great as the distance between a $150 meal and a $250 or $300 meal.

One of the fine-dining experiences I remember best was, years back, when my former father-in-law stumbled into a last-minute reservation for the kitchen table at Charlie Trotter's. Trotter wasn't there, which one of our servers told us with obvious (and obviously pointed) glee, and she promised us a more relaxed experience. At first, I thought she was compensating for a lack of star power, but all night the kitchen and our service was buoyant and happy and a ton of fun. When I read the news about Noma, and its attendant backstory about employee pay and work culture, I recalled that one night when I got to see a super-talented kitchen staff strut their stuff free from the prison warden.

Luckyguy wrote:One of the fine-dining experiences I remember best was, years back, when my former father-in-law stumbled into a last-minute reservation for the kitchen table at Charlie Trotter's. Trotter wasn't there, which one of our servers told us with obvious (and obviously pointed) glee, and she promised us a more relaxed experience. At first, I thought she was compensating for a lack of star power, but all night the kitchen and our service was buoyant and happy and a ton of fun. When I read the news about Noma, and its attendant backstory about employee pay and work culture, I recalled that one night when I got to see a super-talented kitchen staff strut their stuff free from the prison warden.

I dined at the kitchen table and Trotter was there. The tension in the room was sky high. He would stop a waiter about to take food to the table, then stare deeply onto the offering. Every person who contributed any component seemed to have their hearts stop. Once the food was released without complaint, there was a silent sigh of relief.

When Charlie left, they continued with their work easily.

Regards,
Cathy2

And I appreciate the Iliana Regan era of Elizabeth even more. A small open kitchen, never a shout, served by the chefs and cooks, they always seemed to love what they were doing, and were always working as a well-knit team.

And coincidence or no, some of the best, most memorable dining experiences we ever had were at her home, during the One Sister run. They were fun and creative but not pretentious, they were chill, they were reasonably priced and BYO. In my opinion, the difference between such a casual good time and fine dining are neither worth the extras hundreds of dollars nor the imposed formalities.

Did I appreciate the server at Alinea being able to tell me the provenance of the utensils? Yes. Did I feel like a sucker for spending all that money? Also yes. There's a near-final overhead shot of dessert in "The Menu" where my wife chuckled and said "that looks like what we had at Alinea."

Vitesse98 wrote:There's a near-final overhead shot of dessert in "The Menu" where my wife chuckled and said "that looks like what we had at Alinea."

That's not a coincidence. They specifically modeled it after Alinea because it created a great visual (and was very complicated to recreate at that scale under hot lights).