Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The difference would be completely lost on them. I've definitely heard the life advice to avoid trying this kind of thing in case you do like it, then everything less is permanently tainted with the knowledge that it's not as good. However, western super-high-price dining tends to be one or both of "demoscene for food" or "NFTs for food" - demoscene: a series of increasingly elaborate and labor-intensive techniques…
> demoscene: a series of increasingly elaborate and labor-intensive techniques for showcasing skill in a constrained environment. The Heston Blumenthal/molecular gastronomy approach. I’d add on: anything that’s difficult/time-consuming/etc. to make at home even if you could, but scale makes it a lot easier. I know a Ukrainian guy that, without fail, orders borscht if it’s on the menu. He could make it himself, but hi…
True of restaurant food in general and even street food; what makes these things great is often lots of little bits and pieces of topping or flavoring that would be too time-consuming and wasteful to make at home.
But it's not limited to high end. "Indian" food is cheap but benefits from the scaling of cooking a lot of different spices in a large pot for a decent amount of time. Your borscht is another example.
(What the UK calls Indian food is often cooked by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, the name is kind of a historical accident)