Eat the rich.
Fine dining is getting skewered on the internet with critics poking fun at ostentatious dishes and diners forking over hundreds of dollars on a meal, or what many are referring to as #RichPeopleFood. The hashtag has garnered 14,000 views on TikTok and pokes fun at extravagant dining in the age of inflation. It’s a hot topic of late, on the heels of the new thriller “The Menu,” a satire about elitism in which a $1,250-a-person dinner gets dangerous.
One display of #RichPeopleFood shows a white tablecloth restaurant with a cufflink-clad waiter delicately puncturing a swan-shaped balloon filled with what appears to be a French Bresse chicken, a rare, world-renowned breed typically prepared by Michelin-starred chefs. The pretentious poultry is plated on a silver platter bizarrely adorned with chicken legs, as shown in a TikTok posted by @RealTalkwithNinja.
The dish is said to cost $240, according to the poster, who was eager to cluck about the fancy fuss.
“Is this the swan from ‘Swan Lake?’ ” she says in the video.
“This plate is literally $240 – I could have went ahead and bought a balloon, $10 chicken, bake it and throw it in that damn balloon then pop it for ambiance,” she said in the TikTok, which has garnered nearly 12,000 comments so far.
“Just go ahead and eat the chicken tenders and fries,” one commenter chimed in.
Another down-to-earth diner called rich people “extra.”
In a follow-up TikTok, the ever economical @RealTalkWithNinja is seen purchasing a store-bought rotisserie chicken and a bag of balloons for a tongue-in-cheek DIY approach.
“When you’re bougie on a budget,” she captioned the video.
Another TikToker, @Zucchinikopf, lamented the minuscule portions served by some high-end restaurants, captioning a video of a $300 dish plated with bite-sized apples: “Why do rich people eat small portions?”
“That’s a lot for $300,” one commenter wrote.
“Rich people buy experience. Average buy satisfaction,” another eater chimed in.