When I first read the food critic’s review of Grove Restaurant, my immediate reaction was quiet discomfort. At first, I could not understand what caused this reaction, but after some reflection, I now understand. It’s the idea of food as a symbol of status, and the subsequent judgement fine diners often then pass on the eating habits or diets of the poor. This blog is not an attack on any particular person. What I want to do is attack the idea of converting food into a status symbol. Allow me to make some of my own generalisations here, but one would not go to a fine dining restaurant for nourishment. Although it can be done purely for enjoyment, fine dining can also be used as a means to then use food as a signal of status. I argue that one could use this leverage on status as a means to perhaps pass judgement on the large family coming out of a fast food restaurant. I note that in speaking of KFC’s commercialised status, the comment by the critic is, “It’s the celebration of crap. The peculiar ability to regard some of the worst elements of capitalism as harmless fun, just because they make a product you like”[1].I would agree that fast food is a part of capitalism, but so is the unnecessary consumption of goods to establish status. The meal at the Grove cost $582 for two people [2]. this would buy eighty-eight people a meal at a standard inexpensive restaurant in Mumbai, India [3].
- Chapman, Madison and Simon Wilson. “The food critic and the rookie head to KFC.” The Spinoff, December 11, 2017.
- Chapman, Madison and Simon Wilson. “The critic and the rookie go to The Grove, one of Auckland’s fanciest restaurants.” The Spinoff, December 8, 2017.
- “Cost of living in Mumbai.” Source, Numbeo, updated May 2019. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Mumbai
I completely agree with your post! Food has always been a status symbol, and fine dining is the quintessential representation of wealth. It’s rather miserable that food, something that is supposed to give people joy, is a status symbol, and those who frequent ‘lesser’ establishments such as KFC are looked down upon. This kind of judgement can only be afforded by people who sit in the lap of luxury without knowing or caring why those people might be eating at a fast food restaurant. But regardless of why they’re eating there, everyone is entitled to their own choices, and it shouldn’t be another person’s business to judge them for it.
I strongly agree with this post. I recently went to an event and had a 5-course meal following afterwards with wine pairings. The food did look pretty and was small in content, but I have to admit while the wines did go with the flavours, there was something else going on. In a room with businesspeople, academics and higher-class people, I was taken back by the language of fine dining. The art of eating as well as the etiquette was quite obnoxious, not only did they say that the food wasn’t up to standard, but they compared it to other fine dining restaurants. The conversations surrounding the food, the ambiance and the way of eating was pretentious and while it offered insight and a once in a lifetime experience (as a not so financially stable university student)- it was unappetising and unnecessary. I also appreciated your statistic about the cost, I do wonder why indulge in something so extravagant when you could give someone else the opportunity to even taste a decent meal for the first time. Food can be tasty and look lovely without spending someone’s part time salary in one sitting.
You’re absolutely right – it is crazy. The same thing goes on in lots of other fields, from fashion to art to air travel. I guess this is a wider comment on consumerism: while there are people willing to pay these prices, it will sell. It makes you wonder how much of the price is value, and how much of it is some kind of peer pressure that over time escalated seriously out of hand – because people think, if somebody paid that, it must be worth it, right!?
In the same vein, I’m always mildly confused when my relatives drink and judge wine. It must be an experience thing, but I can never really tell which ones are supposedly amazing! (But then again, we’re just little evolutions on a flying rock drinking something made out of a squished organism – who says our concepts of ‘amazing’ are right anyway?)