I think fine dining is dying out everywhere... but I think there will be - and there has to always be - room for at least a small number of really fine, old-school fine-dining restaurants.
When I'm dining out privately, I tend to avoid fine-dining venues; I like things to feel casual.
I think there's something to be said for going to certain fine dining restaurants and knowing that after a certain time, it would be inappropriate to take young children. And, unrealistic for them and unfair to the child and to the others that are dining.
'Fine casual' means taking the cultural priorities that fine dining, at its best, believes in.
Television in the '80s was very limited. There was no Food Network. When I opened Spago, I had the kitchen in the dining hall. It was probably the first restaurant to do so. The dining scene became more casual. All these cooking shows have transformed our profession one-hundred percent.
By itself, tofu is like wet foam rubber, but you'd no more eat it by itself and expect fine dining than you would stare at a blank canvas and expect to see fine art.
Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people.
I think that more and more and more really talented restauranteurs and chefs from the fine dining world are going to try their hand at fine casual. They're going to say, 'Why not us?'
. . . gastronomical perfection can be reached in these combinations: one person dining alone, usually upon a couch or a hill side; two people, of no matter what sex or age, dining in a good restaurant; six people . . . dining in a good home.
A great spa session followed by fine dining followed by passionate love-making is undoubtedly an ideal date plan.
When I go to a fine dining restaurant, I'm excited and I do expect to find proposals to wake my senses.
I love my kitchen. For Manhattan, I have a rather decent-size kitchen, and it has an opening that gives out to the dining room, which has a window with a view of the city and in the distance the Statue of Liberty.
I want to make sure the fine-dining restaurant has a clientele who is local as much as tourists and foodies.
In Paris we have bistros, then we have fine dining. In London, you have a very contemporary scene with mixed influences.
My wife doesn't cook, so we eat out every night. It's not fine dining or anything - we're not fancy people.
I don't think fine dining is dying, but I think those rare occasions when you really want the fanciness are diminishing... I think a lot of people are going to find simpler, more casual ways to enjoy an experience.