I don't think steak is "fine dining" not matter the quality.
Real fine dining, in my book, is what you get at the likes of French Laundry. No one can eat like that every day.

You summed up what I was trying to say better than I possibly could have said it myself.

Steak may not be haute cuisine but when you get that great one, oh man. It sounds crazy but we still talk about that meal we had two months ago.

It can be "fine dining" but not "haute cuisine". I eat steak rarely, picking my choices carefully. Last one was at a French bistro in Melbourne called the European, chateaubriand for 2 beautiful meat but also with 3 side dishes (served on separate plates) of incredibly good coleslaw, potatoes with shallots, bacon and prosciutto, and green beans with pistachios. Simple food but carefully thought out and balanced flavours. I have eaten at the French Laundry and this was every bit as good. But most steak houses would fail to deliver to this level of food; and I was eating on the sidewalk, in a simple bistro. The secret of good food is to enhance the flavour and "terroir", to work with the food rather than to make it into something that it is not. Many chefs (and vintners) make the mistake of trying to mold the food in their image, rather than in the image of the food. Of course securing good provisions can be tough, and having to change the menu to match what is in the market is not viable for some restaurants -- while essential for others.

Absolutely. I can cook ten times better than the most of the 4/5 star hotel meals I get subjected to when I have to resort to room service.

Being a bit of a "foodie" I have eaten in some of the world's best restaurants. My requirement is food that has been cooked with passion. And that can be a $2 bowl of Pho in Hanoi, or a plate of noodles from a Singapore hawker centre...or a $350 per head meal at a "San Pellegrino Top 50" restaurant.

I'm not a trained chef, but I am Australian with German, Scottish and Australian heritage, with a husband of Hungarian and Australian heritage. We also love Chinese and French food as well as our own heritage foods. I cook a pretty wide range of foods from recipes passed down in our families, as well as cooking from cookbooks. Winter's started here, so we're onto the hearty European foods. Venison Sauerbraten with kohl rabi last night (there won't be one restaurant in Australia that serves that!), a German lentil soup the night before (German style with 3 different forms of smoked pork), a roast with Yorkshire Pudding the day before that. Tonight it's either a chicken and vegetable risotto or a stir-fry - depends on what looks good in the shops. Or that duck in the fridge may turn into a French duck in orange sauce. Or I might decide to experiment wildly and put the duck into a risotto. Ate a very nice duck risotto in Budapest, once....

I don't cook other cuisines, but we don't really eat them either. We don't like spicy foods which eliminates a lot of Asian foods, we hate olives and I hate tomatoes which wipes out most of the European Mediterranean foods. Other cuisines - African, easten European and northern Asian are just too far away from us culturally and we have no interest in them.

Don't knock home cooked food!

Audrey

no one is/was knocking home cooked food, I was simply stating that there may be accomplished home cooks out there but few can cook the variety that I prefer. It probably is from lacking talent, but also could be from lack of time (do most have the time to cook stocks properly?), or even the actual cooking equipment (I know of VERY few people that have a hot enough wok at home). What you describe sounds great but I'm guessing I'd tire pretty quickly I believe. IMO I don't think duck into risotto is wild. This is not a knock of you or your cooking, just an opinion on what I've read.

I'd love to cook all those things too, but I have to go to work 5-6 days a week. Part of the appeal of eating out is that all the work is done by someone else. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook. And don't get upset at us either, cause I'm thinking I'm not the only one here who would love a dinner invitation the next (first) time I'm in MEL.

I honestly have found peopel like that to be not people who truly enjoy food. I 'enjoyed' food until my wife taught me better...shes Italian, she loves food. People like your friend, in my opinion, judge places not by the food but by the price and that correlation is just asking for a bummer of a meal.

You nailed it! almost exactly for me at least. Our honeymoon included 3 meals we still talk about, the first was in the back of a convenience store, the second in a semi-causal restaurant, and a third at a world class fine dining. They excel at different things, the $3 burrito melts you with love the $1000 meal with beauty and technical perfection.

PS. salt snobs are worse than wine snobs. :D

Whilst I'm not adverse to the appeal of home cooking, if you happen to be in Melbourne...trust me...it might be my home town, but I still think Melbourne is one of the best cities in the world to eat in.

at home, we cook extremely well, in a pretty sophisticated manner, and in many styles. however:

we have a number of friends with whom we socialize that are in the food,the wine, and the service industry. it forever amazes me as to how much better they cook than we do.

i also think the most difficult dishes to recreate are the ethnic hole in wall dishes.

My palate was forever spoiled with my first plate of hokkien fried prawn mee...Thye Hong, Newton Food Centre.

That's fine dining :D

As a very regular visitor to Singapore with many friends there, I've had some sensational meals in Singaporean hawker centres...nearly all for them for less money than I could have bought the ingredients for myself.

On that vein, the best fish I've ever had was fresh kalkan from a street vendor on the seaside in Istanbul. I believe the proper name might be turbot. Excellent flavor, served with lemon and a side of rocket

Kalkan = Turbot. Yes it is. I've eaten fantantic food in Istanbul too :-)

had a burger once at a tasting dinner. i certainly considered it fine dining.

kobe beef burger with foie gras and truffle sauce, paired with two st supery aged reds.