The Fear Factor Behind That Culinary F Word
We’ve got to come up for another word for “fusion” because the impulse behind it has the potential for good food and profit.
Nobu’s tempura rock shrimp: centuries-old fusion by way of Japan and Portugal
Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg
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 $16,000. 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 SE — which has made Chief Executive Officer Bernard Arnault one of the richest people in the world — last month 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: Democratize or be prepared lose aspirational consumers to companies that know how to sell more affordable opulence.