Competition Breeds Competence: Good Grub and The Spirit of Capitalism; Why NY Food is So Good

New Yorkers are, and always have been, more demanding than any other Americans when it comes to what they eat.



New Yorkers tend to order food as if they are spoiled children dining in their mothers' kitchens. They demand excellent service, which includes accommodation for their idiosyncrasies (that pickle on the separate plate). If they do not get what they want, they howl, return food, do not return to the restaurant, and verbally torch the place. If you open a restaurant in New York, you had better be good, or you will soon be gone.

If you are going to start a restaurant in Manhattan, you had better have something extraordinary in mind: Food of a kind not available elsewhere, or done better than anyone else is currently doing it. I don't know if Thurman Arnold or Joseph Schumpeter or any of the other theorists of the inner mechanics of capitalism have hitherto spoken of it, but there is, in capitalism, operating at a sufficiently intense level, a spirit of competition that can bring out the best in everyone, at least in those realms where you cannot fake it. Something similar operates in professional sports -- the Major Leagues, the NBA and the NFL. Room exists only for the best. What is operating here is the reverse of Gresham's Law, with the good driving out the bad, and in the gastronomic realm the result is splendid food.

~Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal

Post Title

→

Competition Breeds Competence: Good Grub and The Spirit of Capitalism; Why NY Food is So Good

Post URL

→

https://manufacturing-holdings.blogspot.com/2009/04/competition-breeds-competence-good-grub.html

Visit manufacturing-holdings for Daily Updated Wedding Dresses Collection