Pete Wells would like to tell you a joke

Pete Wells is tired of eating like a Chinaman screws. In re the tasting menu explosion he writes:

In the hands of a chef who grasps the challenges and possibilities of the form, a tasting menu can yield a succession of delights that a shorter meal could never contain.

At other times, though, the consumer of such a meal may feel as much like a victim as a guest. The reservation is hard won, the night is exhausting, the food is cold, the interruptions are frequent. The courses blur, the palate flags and the check stings.

 

Sorority snaps from the Cod, who has usually enjoyed meals of three courses more than meals of seven. Perversely, the better the chef, the greater the law of diminishing returns as the courses pile on -- its as much a question of running out of room in your brain as running out of room in your stomach.