"Fine" restaurant dining - not exactly my cup of tea after too many less than overwhelming experiences - seems dictated by a combination of crowd psychology and pop culture, too often subject to the whims and caprices of a relatively small crowd of food writers and restaurant critics who possess broad and existing forums within which to circulate their opinions.
These days, presentation, especially the myriad small dishes approach, seems to have passed actual "pleasure received from consumption" as the justification for high rankings and popularity among the relatively small set of diners who patronize the "restaurants of the month/year/other small segments in time".
Some of the restaurant "Old Guard" continue to occupy their place in public appeal based on consistent execution and delivery of classics, but from "foam" through the moment Bacardi put a fake "Mojito" in a bottle to actually purchasing a burger made with Kobe beef, much of what's out there and popular are little more than whims, caprices and the "smoke and mirrors" ventures of the chefs of the day to ignite a flame which brings a crowd of "nouveau gourmets" to the door and at the end of the meals to cash registers where all the digits have moved an extra space to the left of the decimal point.
As football coaches are often heard to say: "Wait till next year!". Well, next year, the pop food and drink list will have changed and celebrity restaurants will have been joined by new claimants and lost a few pretenders to the ranks of the consistently able.
Last night, on the TV series "Chopped" we were treated to the sort of abject silliness which seems all too pervasive, the creation of starters, entrees and desserts from blatantly inappropriate and almost unmeldable ingredients. I want chefs capable of taking complimentary, locally available ingredients to produce meals from which I can depart feeling not only satisfied, but wanting to come again for the same or similar culinary adventures, and comfortable with the overall "cost/benefit" ratio/equation.
My tastes may change, but my critical perspective doesn't.