I am not a fan of Michelin star restaurants because of their self-reinforcing bias, not to mention comically elevated price tags, a few exceptions limited to lesser cities.
Could this obsession – with stars, molecular gastronomy, and other fads – be a form of inflation, brought by growing bubble of fiat money base into already ultra saturated food market? Inflation, measured – in a classic Austrian school and University of Chicago school, sense – by expansion of money supply rather than by a basket of prices. After all, there is a finite number of mouths to feed, this finite number is growing at a very slowly rate, barriers to new restaurant entry are depressingly low and, insult to injury, there is no customer loyalty to even the most consistent purveyors of fine dining. All while ridiculously high fixed costs of depreciation of the very expensive real estate and premises, inflated by that same expansion of monetary base, require increasingly unsustainable volumes of consumers.
Restaurant prices are already high, but paychecks and disposable incomes are rising even faster as the global stimulus and the same easy monetary policy add fuel to the fire of this winner-takes-all economy, causing purchasing power of the consumer to be increasingly stratified and at the margin joined at the hip with the gravity defying stock and property markets, in turn fueled by the highly uneven injection of the same increased money supply into our economy.
Thanks to deflation of consumer gadget prices, the feel-good toys are becoming increasingly affordable, and rising indicators make it easier for us to talk ourselves into parting with a larger share of disposable income in a hedonistic pursuit of the latest fad, of the latest celebrity chef, or of modernist cooking in general. And why not? How else are we supposed to impress our digital friends on social media?
Either way, nothing compares to the wind in the back a restaurateur gets from a Michelin star, well-deserved, no doubt. Suddenly a short lifecycle commodity becomes a premium product, a must-have experience, a destination. Even if true differentiation from simple but amazing food served by local establishments is questionable. The intangibles – is presentation, the name of the chef, perceived scarcity – lift up the curtain on new horizons in customer bandwidth, mind share, and wallet share – and in incremental contribution profit margin per plate sold, previously off limits to these purveyors of meals artfully presented for on-premise consumption.
This form of inflation in a way surpasses luxury goods and reminds me of how a recent explosion of neutraceuticals enabled suppliers to double down on pushing the same nutrients to the same market by making newsworthy claims and by repackaging, or of the organic food craze, or of the recent and unstoppable infestation of city neighborhoods by bootcamps promising more tangible results for a price only an order of magnitude higher than local gym membership subscription – but we all do it, and love it.
Or maybe this shameless selling of ‘experience’ is the opposite – a more relatable, innocent way of fighting the inevitable price pressures and commoditization, of trying to keep up with that rising rent – again caused by that same expansion of the paper money supply? Either way, seems like a cynical way to pass through unforgiving rent to hopeful customers, meal by meal.
I prefer local and authentic – and if you have to go fancy, make it about more than the size of the check or presentation – and places where the art of cooking and architecture meet are usually as good as any.
