How Much Does It Cost to Eat at These ‘Chef’s Table’ Restaurants? (VIDEO)
The Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table has already aired six volumes — with a seventh and eighth on the way — as well as “side dish” seasons, if you will, centered on pastry, barbecue, and French food.
Now the franchise has baked up another spinoff, Chef’s Table: Pizza, which drops on Netflix on Wednesday, September 7, and will “go inside the kitchens of chefs whose creativity elevates this ordinary dish to an art form,” Netflix says. Specifically, viewers will meet Chris Bianco of Phoenix, Arizona; Gabriele Bonci of Rome, Italy; Ann Kim of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Franco Pepe of Caiazzo, Italy; Yoshihiro Imai of Kyoto, Japan; and Sarah Minnick of Portland, Oregon.
Ahead of that mouth-watering installment, we’re revisiting some of the chefs and restaurants featured in Volumes 1 through 6 of the main show and seeing how much it would cost to eat at each place. Some of these eateries offer a fixed menu, but for those that don’t, we looked for the least expensive appetizers and entrées. Here’s what we found out.
Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana: $188
The cheapest appetizer at this three-Michelin Star restaurant in Modena, Italy — which topped the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards in 2018 — is the Modenese tortellini with Parmigiano Reggiano cream for €80 (or $79 in U.S. dollars). The cheapest entrée, meanwhile, is the lobster in double sauce for €110 (or $109).
Niki Nakayama’s n/naka: $275
Once hailed by The New Yorker as the most prominent kaiseki restaurant in the U.S., this Los Angeles spot features two kaiseki menus, the less expensive of which is the vegetarian tasting menu. The 13-course offering, which “reinterprets a modest modern kaiseki menu with purely vegetarian elements,” goes for $275.
Ben Shewry’s Attica: $244
This restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, says on its website that it serves up a multi-course tasting menu for $360 per person in Australian dollars, which works out to about $244 in U.S. dollars. For that money, you might get dishes with names like “BBQ saltwater croc ribs” and “emu liver toast.”
Grant Achatz’s Alinea: $295
This Chicago institution is one of only 13 restaurants in the United States to currently have three Michelin Stars. The most affordable option on Alinea’s menu is the multi-course tasting menus served in its second-floor salons; they start at $295.
Jeong Kwan’s food at Chunjinam Hermitage: $110
As we saw in Chef’s Table Volume 3, the Seon Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan cooks food at the Chunjinam Hermitage at the Baegyangsa temple in South Korea. According to Lonely Planet, you can experience her food by booking an overnight stay at the temple for ₩150,000, or about $110.
Nancy Silverton’s Osteria Mozza: $58
At this Los Angeles mecca for Italian food, the cheapest of the primi is the ricotta and egg raviolo with browned butter, which is $22, while the cheapest of the secondi is the pan-seared sea trout with summer succotash and shaved spring onion, which is $36.
Virgilio Martínez’s Central Restaurante: $203
The restaurant in Lima, Peru, offers multiple menus, the cheapest of which is the “Territorio en Desnivel” menu, which costs S/782, or about $203. The menu is described as “a trajectory through twelve ecosystems in our country,” with pork belly representing the Andean forest, for example, and pacu fish representing the Amazonian water.
Mashama Bailey’s The Grey: $28
A 1930s-era, Art Deco Greyhound bus terminal in Savannah, Georgia, is now home to The Grey, a destination for Port City-style Southern food. The restaurant’s website doesn’t show prices for its prix-fixe dinner menu, but if you order from the Diner Bar menu, you can get red rice balls with green goddess dressing for $12 and fried chicken with spicy honey and pickles for $16.
Dario Cecchini’s Solociccia: $40
At this restaurant in Panzano, Italy, both the vegetarian menu and the “Menu del Macellaio” go for €40, or about $40 — though kids under 10 and “kids above 90” pay half price, the website says. Oh, and each diner can eat “as much or as little as they wish”!
Musa Dağdeviren’s Çiya Sofrası: $10
Believe it or not, the average price per person at this restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey, is $10 per person, according to 50Best Discovery. “The menu changes daily, according to season and supply, but recurring motifs include the pairing of meats with fruit (lamb with quince being a signature dish) and an intuitive approach to using spices,” the site says.
Chef’s Table: Pizza, Premiere, Wednesday, September 7, Netflix