Stop believing that expensive ingredients create expensive cuisine.
Read that again.
Because this one sentence explains why gastronomy is at a breaking point, why guests misunderstand value, why restaurants struggle to justify pricing, and why the entire industry is stuck between what feels luxurious… and what actually is.
For decades, we trained guests to think a dish is worth more simply because the ingredient is worth more.
And now we’re trapped inside the story we invented.
It’s time to break out of it.
It’s time to rethink value.
It’s time to grow up as an industry.
the trap we built: “expensive ingredient = expensive menu”
Let’s be brutally honest for a second.
For years, the formula was simple:
Lobster = luxury
Caviar = prestige
Wagyu = high-end
Truffle = special occasion
The industry didn’t push this narrative because it was true.
It pushed it because it was easy.
Want to justify a higher menu price?
Add Wagyu – problem solved.
Need your tasting menu to feel “premium”?
Add caviar – done.
Want guests to feel they “got their money’s worth”?
Add lobster – and they’ll smile.
It worked.
It still works.
But it also created the biggest misconception in hospitality:
Guests now think price equals product – not skill, not craft, not mastery.
And the most uncomfortable truth is this:
We did that to ourselves.
the harsh reality: luxury ingredients are easy
Let’s drop the romance for one minute.
Cooking lobster is easy.
Cooking Wagyu is easy.
Serving caviar is not even cooking.
A chef can mess up a potato.
You have to try to mess up caviar.
Luxury products often hide a lack of technique.
They carry the weight of expectation for you.
They perform before you even touch them.
That’s not craft.
That’s not mastery.
That’s not gastronomy.
That’s decoration.
where real craft actually lives
The real craft lives somewhere else entirely.
A perfect ratatouille.
A perfect jus.
A perfect potato.
A perfectly cooked vegetable dish.
That’s hours.
That’s repetition.
That’s discipline.
That’s understanding heat, time, seasoning, tension, balance, structure.
That’s knowing when to stop – not just how to add.
That’s real skill.
The kind that can’t be bought.
The kind that must be learned.
The kind guests don’t see – because the plate looks “simple.”
And here’s the irony modern gastronomy still struggles with:
The more skilled the dish,
the more invisible the work becomes.
And because we taught guests to evaluate food based on ingredient cost instead of craftsmanship, simplicity often feels like “less.”
That’s the tragedy we need to fix.
when simplicity feels suspicious
Somewhere along the way, gastronomy confused complexity with value.
More components felt more serious.
Longer descriptions felt more refined.
Rare ingredients felt safer than honest execution.
Simplicity started to feel suspicious.
“If it’s so simple, why is it expensive?”
“If there’s no luxury ingredient, what am I paying for?”
“If I recognize everything, where is the ‘wow’?”
But simplicity is not the absence of work.
It’s the result of work.
It’s what remains after everything unnecessary has been removed.
marbella – the perfect example of illogical value perception
This one hits home.
Marbella is the land of contradictions.
People will spend:
€10,000
for a beach club bed
• Veuve Clicquot to spray
• fifteen minutes of content for Instagram
No hesitation.
No questions asked.
No price resistance.
But when you tell someone a private dinner crafted with technique, sourcing, precision, prep time, labor hours, and experience costs €200…
Suddenly:
“Hmm… seems expensive.”
Not because it is expensive –
but because luxury goods feel aspirational,
while skill feels negotiable.
People understand the price of champagne.
They don’t understand the price of labor.
They know what potatoes cost in a supermarket.
They don’t know what twelve hours of confit, torching, emulsifying, thickening, reducing, refining, or correcting actually cost.
This is the gap gastronomy is fighting.
And it’s not solved with better ingredients.
It’s solved with better understanding.
the unspoken truth every chef knows
Every chef, every restaurant, every event planner, every private chef has done this:
Budget €50 → “Duck.”
Budget €120 → “Add scallops.”
Budget €250 → “Add Wagyu & caviar.”
Not because the dish needs it.
Not because it belongs there.
Not because it fits the story, the identity, or the craft.
But because it signals value.
Because the guest will complain less if they recognize what they paid for.
We all know it.
We’ve all done it.
And if we’re honest:
It’s killing real gastronomy.
the new era of gastronomy: valuing skill again
We’re entering a new chapter – and it’s overdue.
A chapter where chefs are pushing back.
Where restaurants are rethinking what “value” actually means.
Where gastronomy stops hiding behind ingredients and starts standing on skill.
This new era demands courage.
The courage to simplify.
The courage to serve fewer components.
The courage to price precision correctly.
The courage to remove expensive items that add nothing.
The courage to let skill speak louder than product.
The future of gastronomy is not maximalism.
It’s mastery.
Not “more,”
but “right.”
Not “expensive,”
but “considered.”
why guests are finally ready for this shift
Here’s the surprising part:
Guests are smarter now.
They travel more.
They watch more.
They compare more.
They understand craft more than we give them credit for.
They know when something is honest.
They know when something is overbuilt.
They know when something exists only to justify the bill.
People are tired of complexity without meaning.
They want sincerity again.
Clarity is the new luxury.
what true value actually looks like today
True value is not ingredient cost.
True value is:
time
technique
intention
sourcing
preparation
refinement
consistency
precision
emotional impact
Value is the difference between “nice” and “necessary.”
Between “I enjoyed it” and “I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Value is not what’s on the plate.
Value is what the plate does.
the future: real skill, real story, real experience
Luxury ingredients aren’t disappearing.
They still matter.
They still have a place.
But they can no longer carry the story alone.
Wagyu is not a concept.
Caviar is not creativity.
Truffle is not a narrative.
The future belongs to chefs who can elevate simplicity, refine craft, and create experiences that feel inevitable – not forced.
the hardest sentence to say – and the most important one
“Yes, this potato dish costs €35.
No, there is no lobster.
Yes, it’s worth it.”
That sentence is leadership.
That sentence is confidence.
That sentence is integrity.
That sentence is gastronomy growing up.
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