The Star

I was thinking about food and food critics. I've watched a LOT of cooking shows, and been to dinner myself a few times- when food gets panned it seems like it usually comes down to personal taste. There's no real correction for that- one person's favorite dish is bound to be someone else's least favorite. But it seems to me that there could be one solution.

The proposal is this: a restaurant where you are presented with a menu and you make your choice. However, each dish comes with a secondary choice- which ingredient would you choose to be the star of the meal?

When people order food, they usually order it because they like 1-2 things in the list of ingredients. By finding out which of those ingredients is most important for the patron, this allows the kitchen to make some very small changes that can result in happier patrons and better reviews. It eliminates the possibility of "too much x" or "not enough y". The same way that we are asked to choose the cook of our steak, we should be asked what flavors are the ones that we are looking for. They'll be there anyway- but the kitchen can adjust quantity and perhaps even pull out a few tricks that help to highlight the requested 'star' of the meal.

And of course, this restaurant is called The Star.