Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
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Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
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Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#2If the theory is right, then German, Swiss or Singaporean restaurants should be at the top of the list
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#3Average chinese meal for one over $35? Sounds like a lot..
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#4Fascinating article, although I'm a little taken aback when anyone uses the phrase "ethnic food" nowadays. I didn't realize people said it anymore, it sounds like a relic of the '50s.
I'm also bitter because I grew up in a household where anything that was even remotely different from the same bland 4-5 dishes we ate every single day was considered strange and exotic by the rest of my family. I would love to hang out with certain relatives and be able to suggest Indian or Thai food without getting a reaction like I want them to construct an interdimensional portal so we could go eat food from an alternate universe where everything's made out of pure thought and energy.
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#5Average chinese meal for one over $35? Sounds like a lot..
That includes a glass of wine + tip, and it has to be a Zagat rated restaurant in NYC. Also "average" implies mean, which could be slightly biased upwards due to having some high end restaurants in the list (compared to a median)
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#6If the theory is right, then German, Swiss or Singaporean restaurants should be at the top of the list
Looks that got wrapped in 'Continental' in the Zagat numbers, which is pretty high.
Anecdotally here in DC Germanic restaurants are almost all Biergarten type places that emulate 'street' food, and there isn't any fine dining to bring up the averages. I imagine that's true in most of the US.
Fun outliers I can think of are Filipino and Laotian, which are both fairly expensive vs the country prestige, but of course there's a tiny sample size.
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#7There's a formula for restaurant finance - 30% ingredients, 30% labor, 30% rent and other overhead, and (hopefully) 10% profit. This is broadly true across the industry, at all price points. Much of the higher cost of "nice" restaurants is higher quality ingredients (this is especially true of pricey sushi-dominated Japanese, which pays a premium for the best fish). An additional cost is prestigious locations.
Because of this formula, expensive restaurants are not necessarily more valuable or profitable - merely more prestigious. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about his father's restaurant businesses. He owned two restaurants - a prestigious steakhouse on a valuable lakefront, and a cheap fast food chain location. He made far more money slinging cheap burgers than he ever made on fancy steaks. Cheap ingredients, cheap labor, cheap location, very high volume!
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#8From the operational end, some cuisines take much more kitchen effort than others. Pumping out carbs in pasta form is a cheap operation. French cooking is more labor-intensive.
There are many Italian restaurant chains, but few French restaurant chains.
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#9Japanese food is way overpriced nowadays, and hardly "japanese". You have to pay a ridiculous amount for actual Japanese food; anything mid-priced or below is covered in fried breading, mayonnaise, and even jalapenos. I'm not against "fusion" cuisine, but it sucks when there's so much of that it makes it difficult to get the real thing.
Chinese food in America much cheaper because the ingredients are much less costly and far less difficult to make. I don't think the value of Chinese food really has to do much with the Western perception of the Chinese economy or its people. That "Chinese" food is, in America, is designed to be tasty and relatively inexpensive. Authentic Chinese food isn't as appealing or palatable to most Americans.
Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others
#10A really interesting theory that with relevance beyond cooking. The global discussion of programming, for example, is dominated by the high ranks of per capita GDP, music by the GDP rankings of a few centuries ago. I had assumed it was all path dependency, but perhaps that's putting the cart before the horse.
I found the discussion of Italian vs French food especially interesting since what we think of as "French" cuisine was brought from Italy to France in the early 17th century by Marie de Medici who considered France an uncultured place compared to her native Tuscany.