Toast, juice and tartare: Costing out the value of gourmet

The question comes up periodically on social media and in restaurant dining rooms: are these steak frites (basically meat and potatoes) worth $25? At a take-away juice bar, is this glass of fresh-pressed vegetable juice worth $12–$14?  

They are good questions and are often answered with, "I can make that at home for a lot less." That may be true, but the functional point of restaurants, in part, is to allow you to eat conveniently and enjoyably. 

Price calculus

Restaurant costs are roughly 30 per cent for the food, 30 per cent for labour and 30 per cent for rent and heating and such (leaving slight margin of profit). But what's the full cost of making a meal at home? When you add in costs you might think are invisible, the make-at-home cost begins to add up. 

You have to think of the meal, plan the meal, shop for ingredients, prep the ingredients, cook the dishes, serve the dishes, eat the meal and clean up after the meal: all in all, it takes a lot of your time. 

And is the aioli or Béarnaise sauce as good as the one that came with those chef-made steak frites?

For something as simple as a glass of juiced kale, spinach, cucumber and ginger, it's a matter of relative worth: it could be very tasty for $12 but what's worth it to one person may not be for another. Having a juicer at home might save you some money over the long haul, but there's still the amount of time and vegetable preparation you'll put in to make your beverage. 

Restaurant toast

A few years ago, toast menus starting showing up in restaurants. You could get a piece of avocado toast for a few bucks. Is that worth it, even if it is really good? Some people say no way. But how much different is it than a bagel and cream cheese at Tim Hortons for $2? 

Toast menus can be more complex with more value added. There might be avocado on it, but there could also be chèvre and a sunny side-up egg like at Timeless Café in Waterloo for $10; or, poached Labrador shrimp on toast like at The Rich Uncle in Kitchener for $16. Their toast of mushrooms and chèvre ($15) is pretty darn good. 

Meat and poultry

Many people love chicken wings. Prices vary as do size of wings, so let's say you get a pound (six to eight wings) for $12-$14. Duck wings are a tad more expensive at $14 to $15 for fewer wings in an order, but they are worth it for deeper, richer flavour and texture – and likely more meat.  The perception is that they are more expensive, however.

With beef getting more expensive, restaurants look to serving cheaper cuts; but it's not the cut as much as how they cook it to make it tender and delicious. While a regular classic poutine can be under $10, a brisket poutine at Beertown in Cambridge is extremely rich for $16. The national poutinerie Smoke's serves Korean beef poutine for $12 in Waterloo. I had a duck poutine with foie gras gravy in Oakville recently for $15, well worth it.   

Test the math at home

Take the simple carpaccio and tartare, a raw protein like salmon or beef, that's somewhere around $16 or $18. It's a classic dish and one that isn't hard to make—there's no deep frying like there is for wings. Let's see if we can make one at home for less than that. 

Assume a small Denver steak, a chuck cut, is $5. Estimate $0.75 each for olive oil, shallots, cilantro and chives; $0.25 each for various mustards, a chicken egg, capers, lemon juice and hot sauce.  And a fancy-pants quail's egg garnish is $0.20. That's a total of roughly $10 for ingredients.

And in terms of time? Well, that's hard to figure exactly, but let's say one hour for shopping and prepping ingredients. You decide whether your hour is worth minimum wage or $30. 

Now, I enjoyed making the simple chop-and-whisk-together-appetizer, but when you factor in the prep time, it turned out to be more expense than at a restaurant – where I can enjoy the dish and the ambiance too. 

Beef tartare (based on an Anthony Bourdain recipe)

Ingredients

• 2-3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon anchovies (or capers), finely chopped
• 2 cornichons, finely chopped
• hot sauce to taste (Bourdain used Tabasco; I used 1 teaspoon Korean gochujang)
• 1 dash of Worcestershire
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 ½ lb. very fresh top sirloin (I used a "Denver steak")
• 3 tablespoons onion, finely chopped (I used a shallot)
• 3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons 
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 quail's egg

Toast points for serving

Method

• Combine the lemon juice, mustard, egg yolk in large mixing bowl.
• Add the capers, cornichons, onions and whisk together.
• Add the hot sauce and Worcestershire.
• Slowly drizzle in the oil and emulsify.
• Fold in the herbs and season to taste.
• Use a ring mould to shape and plate the tartare. top with quail's egg and serve with toast points.
• Eat and enjoy.
• Do the math later.