$900 tasting menu

For a tasting menu? you guys are more expensive than Noma. what does justify that kind of prices. Eleven madison would be $600 only.

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Kevin_MacDuff_764542

I got super excited by the email, hesitated slightly when I saw there would be a charge even though as a paying chefsteps member I felt like I was being invited in to something special. I held my breath clicking the eventbrite link hoping the number would be reflective of simply cost of the dinner, like $150 or $200 and that if it was in that ballpark it would justify the drive down from Vancouver.

Then I thought I was reading it wrong. There’s no way they could be charging this much. Wow. All I can think now is: tone deaf. What possible way can this be justifiable pricing?

grant

Hi Kevin and Nicolas,

Grant here. First off, I am thrilled that you are excited about the idea of the dinner, these are some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I get to produce in my career so it means a lot when the idea resonates.

Regarding your feelings on the price, I’ll try to explain. First off, we are not a restaurant and we don’t benefit from any efficiencies that a restaurant does when they hold service every night(or more often.) To that, I have worked in high restaurants on and off since I was 13 years old (I’m 40 now) and have yet to see one sustainably find a price that reflects “just the menu,” usually they need to sell lots of wine to subsidize the financial burden of the food menu and service. I have put on many dinners and events small and large over my years and known well the costs—put frankly I’ll lose money on this diner. We’re doing it because it will be EPIC. We are not Noma, but I was fortunate enough to be invited to dine at their last game menu and the cost per person was about $1600, with an N/A paring. These are art projects trying to do something special for guests, the money just barely covers the hard costs as crazy as that may seem.

Myself and my team will work full time for weeks preparing for this experience, developing new dishes, designing and printing custom service ware that will only be used for this dinner, I’m hiring full time staff that are professionals to help service, a very well known sommelier to add another very educational and delicious layer to this experience.

Guests will get to ask questions, eat things that you can not have anywhere else, learn up close and personal from chefs, sommeliers and coffee experts while we put on the event and even have the opportunity to dine at a small table with some extremely well know food industry authorities.

This is not just a dinner, this will be a very special night—not to mention the gift bag alone is of $300 value as it stand now and I keep adding things—because that what I do:)

I’ve hosted many events and am very confident that anyone coming will find the value of their experience greater the cost of ticket.

I understand this event is not for everyone, most of what my team produces is offered to the world for free, beyond that what I feel to be an incredible value in the materials and experiences in Studio Pass membership at $69 a year is even too much for some and for others a screaming deal. But what we’re doing this time is opening up the studio to share with the maximum size group where I can offer the very best of what the brand and my team has to offer creatively in an evening.

There will be more events—I hope at varying levels of showmanship and production. I hope you understand and I thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about this dinner a bit more in detail as well.

Sincerely,

Grant

Kevin_MacDuff_764542

Thanks Grant,

I align well with your interests in artistic expression through food and experiences. Cooking fulfills this role in my life as well.

I might just encourage you to think about your audience. This isn’t about you at all so I hope I have not offended you. I wonder if you asked your subscribers what’s the most they have spent on dinner that they felt was worthwhile.

It sounds like your interest and intention is to bigger the menu, bigger the experience, bigger even the gift bag. Maybe re-reading The Lorax might help. I feel like that might have helped the decision to declare the Noma model as unsustainable.

I hope you find an audience for this. I just know it’s not me and the art and dedication to progressing the practice of fine cooking that I thought I was supporting with my subscription is now obviously going to benefit the 1% richest people who can afford this.

I’ve cancelled my subscription now but wish you well with your new patrons. If you do a Patek Philippe collab version of the Joule, please don’t call me.

Sincerely,

Kevin

grant

Kevin,

I’m sorry to hear you feel this way. Just to be clear, Studio Pass membership fees are not supporting this event whatsoever. Studio Pass Membership fees help to offset the amazing work that my team of creatives produce, further, the exclusive experience and content that Studio Pass Members receive is also supported by Breville because the company appreciates the importance of unbiased and boundary pushing editorial.

I have only offered this dinner experience to Studio pass members (and no one else) as another benefit to their loyal commitment to supporting ChefSteps.

Everything I do in my career (and here at ChefSteps and Breville) is seeing out a heartfelt commitment I have to helping the world feel more creative and confident in the kitchen, moving people from consumers to producer through everything we do.

I’m sorry to have missed the mark here in your eyes but I appreciate your position for you.

Grant

Todd_Shewman_38102

Kevin and all, while I empathize with what you outlined and I too was briefly hit with a bit of sticker shock, but then I stepped back and saw what was included:

14-course tasting menu experience in the ChefSteps Studio.
Sommelier-curated wine or non-alcoholic beverage pairing.
Expert barista coffee service.
Gift bag with epic ChefSteps goodies.

I would actually put this into the category of the Alinea Kitchen table experience which, is $500pp.....before the 20% gratuity, and ANY wine etc (Cocktails are extra). I can tell you from experience, you're spending over $1K after drinks, taxes and mandatory tip. So if you're looking for any sort of "bar" I would respectfully submit it's in a similar arena. What CS has done has removed all the gratutities, wine pairing/libation charges and you leave w a goodie bag (Alinea you leave a little intoxicated and a printed menu. lol). You get to be with all the CS team (not just a kitchen tour) and exchange ideas.

Okay, now that's just the experience. If anyone else here has done a tasting menu, they know there are many hours and hundreds of $$'s of ingredients to make the final dishes (seriously, think about what it costs just to make ~150ml of a redwine glaze.....it's about $40), not to mention the hrs of experimenting and cost of the "trial" products to GET to the final product. I've done a few of these and have always lost money. Always. Do one...... and step back and ask yourself how much money was spent on a 9 or 10 course tasting menu, the product, the dish choices, the time experimenting, and then prepping and finally delivering. There are literally hundreds of hours poured into these things. So while I understand the initial sticker shock, it really is on par for what they are offering (and then some). Just my .02

Todd

Jeffrey_1651367

Hey Grant, this sounds interesting!

The odd thing is that I’m a studio pass member but I didn’t get any email about this.

I regularly get Chefsteps emails, and double checked both my inbox and junk mail folder after seeing this thread.

Assuming it isn’t already sold out, is there any way to get more info about this event?

Thanks!

nicholas.gavin

Hello Jeffrey. Sorry that the email never seemed to find you. At the moment the dinner is full but HERE is a link to the page to signup for the waitlist with more information about the event.

Jeffrey_1651367

Thanks Nick!

Briar_Rivera_1715948

Wow