Why Don’t French Resto Critics List the Prices of Their Meals?

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Why Don’t French Resto Critics List the Prices of Their Meals?
The only food critic posting/writing from France I know of who gives the cost of his meals is the dreaded François Simon in his weekly “Hache Menu” in Figaroscope. Everybody else gives the prices of the “menus” (e.g., prix fixe for 3 courses) or formulas (for 2) or plat du jour (1) or a spread for the à la carte. (I might add that only his colleague Emmanuel Rubin and the Berger/Toinard team at A Nous Paris have the guts to actually assign numbers and/or the equivalent of stars.) Why? I have no idea but of course I have lots of ideas. Either they don’t want you to know how much they got comp’d to (it is rumored that when Frédéric Simonin opened his eponymous place, he, Frédéric S., prayed for the critics and photogs to leave so he could start charging) or they don’t want you to know how much they drank (Simon is a virtual teetotaler), or they’re in the pockets of the industry (the “Food Biz game,” so nicely explained in Food Business : La face cachée de la gastronomie française by Olivier Morteau, Paris, 2004) or they truly believe the way to encourage people to patronize places is to hide the prices. But for my back-packing nephew and niece from Virginia, my hand-to-mouth intellectual pal from Cambridge or my Mother, a frugal Scots-Canadian (bless her)—it would be nice to know what the actual bill was, once one had the items they shame you into having—the coperto, bread, bottled water, cover charge, etc. Look, I’m Mr. Average Citizen, who does review restos in Paris for a hopefully profitable website, but I want to know how much of a bite a meal will take out of my wallet. And since I’m no longer into aperos and digestos, what my bill actually will be. Now I understand the supplement problem/issue: some chefs are so into adding them, rather than upping the price of the “menu,” that it’s like buying oxygen or baggage space on Ryanair. Truffles OK, scallops alright, but plain ole green asparagus, in season, unh, unh. So my bill of the week was the day this was written and was just under 50 € at: Le Chalbens 33, rue de la Chine in the 20th (Metro: Pelleport) T: 01 40 33 48 01 Closed Sundays and Mondays 2 courses for 27, 3 for 30 €. ©2010 John A. Talbott Looking for something sweet? Try zChocolat‘s exclusive selection of handmade French chocolates. Please post your comments or questions and let them flow. Register HERE to do so if you need a Bonjour Paris user name and password.
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