For an indicator of just how very bad things are in the restaurant business, consider the spectacle at the White House on Monday. Thomas Keller, an illustrious chef who happens to own some of the most expensive restaurants in the world, was among 10 hospitality industry chiefs representing every part of American dining — from Burger King to mom and pop joints to other Michelin Three Stars — seated with the entire Trump Brain Trust: President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, the president’s son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner and presidential daughter Ivanka Trump, among others.
At one point, Keller began to speak, gently, to the president, explaining how the flavor of the butter Keller sources from a solitary Vermont farmer with eight cows changes from season to season. “In the spring when the … [cows] are grazing on grass, the butter is a beautiful orange hue,” he said. It is unclear what outcome Keller was trying to get with Trump; maybe he thought the idea of Per Se running out of exquisitely-flavored butter would galvanize Trump into action for the nationwide crisis of small family farms facing economic collapse as American restaurants lie dying.
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