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The fear factor behind that culinary F word
We’ve got to come up with another word for ‘fusion’ because the impulse behind it has the potential for good food and profit.
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All cuisines are to a large extent the product of historic fusions, says the writer.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Howard Chua-Eoan
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When is a restaurant like a handbag? A private dining room reservation – drink pairing included – for 12 people at the coming Kyoto residency of Danish chef Rene Redzepi’s Noma costs around US$16,000 (S$21,300). You can spend that much on a single pink Birkin bag from Hermes on the secondary market. Yes, used.
Despite the disparity in per-unit cost, restaurants have something to learn from the current state of the luxury industry. LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton – which has made chief executive officer Bernard Arnault one of the richest people in the world – in July suffered “the biggest bling bust” in a decade, according to my colleague Andrea Felsted. She’d been seeing signs of it months before. In April, she offered the big luxury houses some advice: Democratise or be prepared to lose aspirational consumers to companies that know how to sell more affordable opulence.
