Making modern mythology

A very interesting, though very long, article about "the Most Exclusive Restaurant in America" http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/29/damon-baehrel-the-most-exclusive-restaurant-in-america


Spoilers follow.



So it's clear to me this guy does run a restaurant, but he has people in only when he has enough stuff to put together a meal. It's also clear he makes a LOT of his ingredients from scratch from raw materials in his land, but certainly not all of them. Finally it's clear he learned a lot on his own, but that he didn't develop his operation without any help or outside knowledge. Overall, the myth that he's booked solid for ten years, or that he serves two or three parties in one night, is mostly harmless. The exception is for those serious foodies who take it literally and can't find their way in. I'm sure they find it seriously frustrating.

What is interesting is not so much why this man Baehrel has built up his own little personal mythology, but what elements he has employed in doing so. Let's look at what I've listed above:

1) Exclusivity. This means few people can a) afford to eat there and b) will even have the chance to do so. This is par for the course for expensive, trendy restaurants the world over, though it's always possible to get a booking date or to be squeezed in after a cancellation. That said, a normal restaurant will be booked solid for perhaps weeks, months or maybe as long as a year. But few will take reservations for a longer time span than that, never mind ten years (who schedules dinner years in advance?)

2) Foraging or using local sources, and making everything from scratch. I understand the second part, because I like to cook from scratch myself. Perhaps if I had the time and the room and the inclination, I'd grow some of my own ingredients. There is, though, a fad or trend right now about such things, especially about foraging in the wild and using local sources. That's pure fad and trend, IMO. The making from scratch also implies personalized quality control over the whole process. So that a piece of bread, chocolate, pasta, sauce, etc. will be 100% as the chef intends it to be.

3) The entirely self-made person, who needs no help from anyone. This is partly the mythos of being "self-made" and partly admiration for being so clever and original as to develop methods for making all sorts of things. Seeing as I've taken no cooking lessons at all myself, you'd think I'd appreciate this. But I've looked up countless recipes on the net, have asked more experienced people for advice, have looked up methods here and there, and I'd take lessons if I could spare the time and money to do so (maybe after I retire). Still, I like when I have original ideas I'd never seen before.

What we see is this guy Baehrel has used three specific values much esteemed by his target audience. Who's his audience? Foodies, I'd say, or the type of people in my time were known as gourmands. People who appreciate good, expensive food. In this case, I'd say especially foodies who appreciate novelty and originality (see the descriptions of some dishes in the article, then ask when was the last time you had something cooked with pine needles or tree sap).

Look around high-end restaurants, bakeries and even confectioners, and you'll find many of these values proclaimed or advertised. Even in humbler places, things like "we bake our own bread fresh every day" has traction. Hell, what about the Colonel's secret recipe of herbs and spices? And that's fast food.

Bear in mind, though, that journalists love to do an exposé. Baehrel has been exposed (albeit in the New Yorker), but so were a the Mast brothers making chocolate in Brooklyn (I think it was Brooklyn), who made a big deal about going from "bean to bar" on their own (several articles have exposed how much ready-made chocolate they buy in blocks).

None of this affects the quality of the things they offer. But no one appreciates being deceived, or being party to deception, or the appearance of fraud.

That is like advertizing 'local' cheese company.... when it all comes from Wisconsin even if it starts in a cow just up the road.

However, remember the old Herbfarm Restaurant in Seattle... it held Four phone bookings a year. All always sold out promptly. Prizes on NPR tv and radio stations were much coveted tickets to dine there. The only served lunch and dinner. Five courses and five wines or Seven courses and Seven wines. Small intimate room.

They really were so popular that despite alternatives available elsewhere, they had the whole world flocking to their door.