I think fine dining should be part of the community where it is, more than just for the people who are going to make a special occasion.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people.
Dining should be something that isn't always taken extremely seriously.
I used to love fine dining, but I lost my appetite for it to a degree because sometimes it is too much about the effort and too little about the result.
Shared dining fortifies us.
I grew up with that farm-to-table dining before it was sweeping the nation. I do think there's some value to really throwing yourself into food and embracing where it comes from.
Any celebration meal to which guests are invited, be they family or friends, should be an occasion for generous hospitality.
Fine dining teaches you how to cook many different things, and it gives you the basic fundamentals, but these specialty restaurants, they're not teaching you the broad foundation you need to become a well-rounded cook.
Everybody is welcome to come to dinner, but there's going to be the adult table and the kids' table. Whiny people who want to throw food and make noise and interrupt and be rude and act like children, they can sit at the kids' table.
I love the intensity of the fine-dining kitchen, but loathe the fine-dining experience.
I think fine dining is dying out everywhere... but I think there will be - and there has to always be - room for at least a small number of really fine, old-school fine-dining restaurants.