Eating Crow

After last night's post on the Keller/Achatz dinners, I received an email from Nick Kokonas, co-owner of Alinea.

He gave me a lot of additional background on the costs of the dinner. As a result, I no longer think the dinner is a rip-off. Expensive, yes. But the margin the restaurants are making on it is very, very fair. No one will be buying a yacht with the profits, in other words.

So what does $1500 include?

The food, of course, which any moron could expect to include top-notch caviar and other expensive ingredients. It also includes wine pairings, many of which will be vintage champagnes and other library wines.

So far, many of you might have made reasonable guesses that those things would be included.

There is also the cost of the books, both over $100, the tax and tip.

What you might not know, and I certainly did not, was that, in the case of the Per Se and TFL dinners, Alinea will be flying eight chefs to the host city. Though I did not hear from the Keller camp, nor did I ask, presumably they are flying a similar number of folks to and fro. So the travel costs factor in.

All in, that takes the hard costs up to such a number that $1500 is a fair price.

Beyond that, Mr. Kokonas shared his thoughts on charity events. Many of them don't live up to the "charitable" idea they advertise but are merely excuses for wanton spending and exorbitant price tags, something he abhors. Can't disagree with him there -- adding a charity to the event might be good PR but a hollow gesture is a hollow gesture.

I'm glad that I am informed and can now make a judgment about this dinner with all the facts. (It's not worth it to me personally, but nor is it offensive any more.) I hereby rescind my personal ban on having dinner at a Keller or Achatz restaurant in the future (um, if they would have me -- I may make the reservation in another name, ahem).

More than that, I really appreciate that Mr. Kokonas emailed to share Alinea's side of the story. He could easily have  dismissed me as another idiot blogger who doesn't know what she's talking about. (Um, which I was in this case, though that's not usually true and, in my own defense, I have never run a restaurant and I suck at business-y things so estimating these prices was, for me, not possible.)

I do worry that many people have had and will have a similar reaction as I did, and I wish there was some way Alinea and TFL could address that. This post may reach a few people, so that's a start.

As a side note, it's been interesting to hear different view points on the dinner. Some friends, like me, were shocked at the thought. Many will remain so, even with the explanation. I've heard from people who think, regardless of the hard costs, that it's a fair price for well-made food from the best artisanal sources. Others have said that, hey, if the customer values it, ditto.

Anyway, I wish everyone who can attend bon appetit.

Comments

[Stephanie]

Too rich for my blood, but I appreciate the follow-up.

[Genie]

Yeah -- it's still too much for me to consider spending on the experience -- I'm not sure I would get $1500 of appreciation out of it. But I do think it's quite impressive that you got the email -- I'm glad the chefs are paying attention to what's being written and stopping to explain further when that's helpful and/or necessary.

[Sara]

oh good, because at some point, I really do want to go to Per Se, and I was going to be feeling really really bad about it.

[sam]

I wouldn't or didn't ever disregard the hard costs, to the contrary I just felt they needed to be understood and considered. Either way - it's out of my league until I win a lottery.

xxxx

[Jeff Shattuck]

No need to eat crow! Keller and crew should have realized that doing something this extravagant in our war torn, recession laden and generally bummed out economy might not exactly enhance their image. If I were them, I would take your email as a darn good reminder for why it's always smart to put a little prep time into how you present something BEFORE you present it.

Off to McDonald's...

[Joy]

I love you for always saying what you think and for always being so fair. You should be proud of saying what everyone was thinking -- it got us all the answer we were looking for.

xoxo
the girl whose husband really wants to go and just might bamboozle her into doing it (and now she doesn't have to feel like a total ass for it).

[Stephanie]

Man, that's a really good point, Jeff.

[alison]

good to know the facts but still too steep for my wee pocket!

[Josh Neumann]

I applaud him for taking the time to contact you, that's customer service in action.

[foodhogger]

Honestly,
it sounds to me like you had an honest opinion about this event, and then you got your wrists slapped by Alinea, and now you're basically pimping out that it could be a reasonable price tag.
Fact of the matter is, that it's not reasonable. $1500 for dinner? Not in today's times, and the more we all promote this, the more the bar gets raised (monetarily).

[cookiecrumb]

I know you are very preoccupied these days. I just want to wish you a spectacularly happy day tomorrow.

[Bob LaGatta]

I don’t know on how I stumbled upon this cooking blog., All I know is that I’d better check out the archives for a good read. Ha-ha! Just droppin’ to say hi!
Oh. You might want to check this out: https://www.technocooks.com for uhm…a different “menu.”

[john]

Good point.

A little recommendation, I found these to be so delicious and useful in my kitchen: http://bajoseasonedsalts.com/

Cheers.

John