The diners hold their white strings tightly, staring at the voluptuous clear balloon attached to the end of their string before they begin to eat. The scene seems somewhat comical as the diners attempt to wrap their mouths around the balloon without touching it to their crisp black suit jackets and elegant formal dresses. One of the most popular “dishes” at Chicago’s Alinea, these balloons are created with green apple taffy and filled with helium. Alinea, created by Grant Achatz, is a three star Michelin restaurant and ranked 21st best restaurant in the world by the British magazine Restaurant.
Alinea exemplifies many of the problems with today’s culinary world; namely the pretentiousness of modern, high-end restaurants, and how food critics adhere to these modernist ideas. The problem isn’t with Alinea itself; the problem is with the diners. For $300 per person, diners flock to Alinea to experience an edible apple flavored balloon, among other dishes. One cannot deny the creative genius of Alinea, and one may even justify the price point through Alinea’s uniqueness. After all, where else would one be able to experience dishes so surreal?
The problem comes with the idea that restaurants such as Alinea are among the best in the world. Simply put, these destinations aren’t fundamentally restaurants. They act more as culinary art galleries rather than restaurants. The “revolutionary” ideas that modern high-end restaurants pride themselves on advancing are fine, and these ideas should be continuing to advance. However, although producing edible creations, these locations shouldn’t advertise themselves as restaurants, and neither should diners and food critics. The line between food and art may be hazy, but once a feeling of ambiguity is present, it’s safe to say the producer shouldn’t call itself a restaurant.
In an episode on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, Achatz solidifies his restaurant’s artistic inspirations.
“We would go to art galleries and you would see these giant-scale pieces of art.
And I would always say, ‘Why can’t we plate on that?’” Achatz said. Indeed, his restaurant’s courses are collections of edible art rather than restaurant level food, but reputable food magazines and critic such as Michelin and Eater still list it near the top for restaurants globally. Not only does this glorify the idea that Alinea is a true restaurant, it diminishes respect for traditional restaurants. Placing locations such as Alinea in the same list as traditional, high-end restaurants such as New York City’s Peter Luger (Michelin two-starred), provide diners with the notion that Alinea is far superior, when in reality the two shouldn’t even be categorized with each other. With new-age artistic “restaurants” dominating the top of ranked lists, traditional restaurants lose respect and culinary presence in food culture globally due to the diners’ inability to differentiate edible art from food.
Traditionalists and modernists lambast each other constantly in the culinary, but neither is right. Modern, more artistic culinary locations and traditional restaurants would both fare better if not categorized together, and reviewed separately. Neither would lose any business; diners will always strive to experience something new and modern, but will never bore of classic offerings. Locations similar to Alinea and restaurants like Peter Luger are individual aspects of cuisine, and should be treated as such.
