Spending $443.48 on Dinner at Whole Foods

Published on Tuesday, October 5, 2010, by James Norton / Edit Post

Writing over at Slate, Noreen Malone puts forth the following daring thesis: If you go to Whole Foods intent on spending the maximum possible amount of money on a single meal, you can spend a very, very large amount of money on a single meal. ($443.48, to be precise.)

Her mission, which gets less and less thought-provoking as you wade through the story, is not crystal clear even at the outset:

"I thought I'd try something different—simulating what grocery-store visits might be like if I had unlimited money to throw around. ... I went to Whole Foods, that upscale paradise, and attempted to find the most expensive possible combination of groceries to create a dinner for two."

But why, exactly? Is the point that rich people, having more money, can spend more on dinner? That Whole Foods has some groceries that are more expensive than other groceries? That if you make nothing but spendthrift decisions, the final bill goes up? When you get right down to it, the entire story seems to be nothing more than an excuse to create a list of luxury foods and their price tags heedless of anything even vaguely resembling a realistic home cook's thought process.

For example:

"Conventional cheapskate wisdom holds that prepackaged salad dressings are sold at a massive markup and that making your own is always money-saving. Not, however, if you decide to toss together a bit of Badia a Coltibuono olive oil ($41.99 per jar) with some $49.99 balsamic vinegar and a bit of Dr. Gonzo's Moose Piney Adirondack Black Fly Mustard, $5.69."

But was all $50 of balsamic used up on this one salad? Presumably not; the actual price should probably be something more like $1 to $2 for the actual vinegar used. Why not buy an entire kitchen from scratch to really drive up the cost of the meal? "Oh, wow, after you're done putting in top-of-the-line Viking Professional appliances, the cost of this single meal is well over $60,000!"

Slate's commentary on food (and otherwise) is generally compelling and ahead of the curve. This story, however, seems to raise more questions about its own editing process than the subject matter at hand.

Image source: Flickr member AComment under Creative Commons
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COMMENT

  • Someone would actually spend money on "a bit of Dr. Gonzo's Moose Piney Adirondack Black Fly Mustard, $5.69."? Between the moose and the black flies, Grey Poupon is looking pretty good.

  • It's a quibble, but also the quip in the first paragraph should read "la cucina rica" (not "rico"), since in Italian (like in Spanish) adjectives inflect to match the gender of their nouns.

    As for the article in general, I agree that in the end one is left wondering: "So what?"

  • That article sounds dumb, but surely not as dumb as brining it to the attention of fellow chowhounders?

  • None of you fantasy shop? lol.

  • listen we are so cheap... I cant believe we dont want quality food in our bodies. WE are walking rotting corpses because we would rather catch a deal and rott in our insides than eat QUALITY FOOD. Cmon PEOPLE. PLEASE... That is why we are all sick and unhealthy.

  • Honestly she said within the article she didn't really buy these things, wouldn't buy these things, AND she would never eat these things together. Lighten up people.

  • Only $49.99 for balsamic vinegar? Obviously she purchased a rather plain 20 year old balsamic. How pedestrian. :-D

    I think, however, if she had purchased the good stuff, 100 plus years old, that would have taken a majority of the $443.48 that was spent.

    All kidding aside, this would have been a golden opportunity to advise people on how to shop wisely at Whole Foods, while not spending your...+READ

    Only $49.99 for balsamic vinegar? Obviously she purchased a rather plain 20 year old balsamic. How pedestrian. :-D

    I think, however, if she had purchased the good stuff, 100 plus years old, that would have taken a majority of the $443.48 that was spent.

    All kidding aside, this would have been a golden opportunity to advise people on how to shop wisely at Whole Foods, while not spending your “Whole Paycheck.”

    ;-)-COLLAPSE

  • Noreen Malone got Slate to foot the bill and she got to enjoy the meal-not too stupid.

  • I'm not sure what the point here is..

  • high quality balsamic is nite and day better than the regs and will make an ordinary salad delectable. my one problem with whole foods is that it isn't easy to find someone who can explain the differences between various high end oils or balsamics... for this reason i'd get these items from an italian specialty store or another high end purveyor. generally WF sells high quality items and charge a...+READ

    high quality balsamic is nite and day better than the regs and will make an ordinary salad delectable. my one problem with whole foods is that it isn't easy to find someone who can explain the differences between various high end oils or balsamics... for this reason i'd get these items from an italian specialty store or another high end purveyor. generally WF sells high quality items and charge a reasonable price for them. the 365 brand is very fairly priced. the emu eggs are damn expensive and i'm guessing would be hard to eat in a one-omlette sitting.-COLLAPSE

  • You took something stupid and gave it more attention. Why don't you just go dress up like Lady Gaga, buy a Justin Beiber CD and photograph a Kardashian?

  • I don't get the point about the point of this article about the seemingly no-point article about shopping at Whole Foods. From what I've read here, no one seems to understand when and/or why it's reasonable to spend a lot of money for expensive items because they contribute something otherwise unattainable to a dish, but just to buy $42.00 olive oil and $45.00 Balsamic to make salad dressing only...+READ

    I don't get the point about the point of this article about the seemingly no-point article about shopping at Whole Foods. From what I've read here, no one seems to understand when and/or why it's reasonable to spend a lot of money for expensive items because they contribute something otherwise unattainable to a dish, but just to buy $42.00 olive oil and $45.00 Balsamic to make salad dressing only underscores that these are a couple of writers who apparently (obviously?) have NO CLUE about cooking!-COLLAPSE

  • I would rather see an article on how you could shop smartly at Whole Foods and come away with a fridge full of quality products at a comparable (or only slightly higher) amount spent than at a normal supermarket. People who complain that Whole Foods is 100% expensive aren't making wise choices. Do they have incredibly expensive products? Yes. But not all of it is.

  • @jondoe, the difference is that the tax on the poor goes to the state. The "tax" on the rich goes to another rich person's pocket.

  • The idea is funny. A friend is on a forum for turntables. Some people spend $10k for one - like they could really tell the difference! And don't forget that $3k tone arm...
    Wealthy people have to spend that money somewhere, and they will go to ridiculous lengths to do it! I read today that as lotteries are a tax on the poor (who play it), designer goods are a tax on the wealthy! They have a...+READ

    The idea is funny. A friend is on a forum for turntables. Some people spend $10k for one - like they could really tell the difference! And don't forget that $3k tone arm...
    Wealthy people have to spend that money somewhere, and they will go to ridiculous lengths to do it! I read today that as lotteries are a tax on the poor (who play it), designer goods are a tax on the wealthy! They have a point.-COLLAPSE

  • "It's probably because the Whole Foods CEO opposed Obamacare and Slate has never forgiven him for that."

    Yeah, I'm sure that's what's going on. No one ever said anything bad about Whole Foods before that happened.

  • It's probably because the Whole Foods CEO opposed Obamacare and Slate has never forgiven him for that.

  • And why did you feel the need to give this moronic story much more attention than it deserves by featuring it here?

  • This is absolutely ridiculous, why would you spend this much money on food at Whole Foods? It already burns your wallet already, why do more damage?! I personally go to Whole Foods for the fresh meats, deli, and seafood. Other than that, I spend my money of produce and artisan stuff elsewhere.

  • Thanks, James Norton. I wondered if I was crazy after reading that article -- I don't see how "spend as much money as you possibly can at Whole Foods" could prove any kind of point. (Now, if she had put together a multicourse meal spending as LITTLE money as possible, to refute the "Whole Paycheck" claim, that assignment would have had a point.)

  • Re: chispa_c

    If the writer intended for the word "unexpected" to modify "ostrich egg" rather than the word "nestled," it was not an error of grammar but rather one of syntax. Correction below.

    "I paused over an unexpected $39.99 melon-sized New Jersey ostrich egg nestled in the produce section." I removed the writer's comma to improve the sentence flow.

  • This is a ridiculous article. Waste of my time.

  • "I paused over a $39.99, melon-sized New Jersey ostrich egg nestled unexpected in the produce section".

    "Unexpectedly" would be the proper grammar.

    Bad premise AND bad grammar. Waste of time.

  • I'm less apalled by the monetary cost than I am by the carbon footprint of that meal... Medjool dates, Marcona Almonds, pre-packaged crab cakes, indivdiual little serving packages of tonic, peppers from holland
    disgraceful

  • Title on this piece immediately cracked me up- I was wondering what the point was myself. Especially after the author admitted that the final menu was sporadic at best.

  • The price tag also include not one but two bottles of truffle oil (of which only a tiny fraction will actually be used, at least if the meal is intended to actually be edible) at $26 a pop, and a $31 bottle of honey. Then there's the entire pound of coffee, hot chocolate for 16, etc.

  • Very good response, the article was ridiculous. Also, she made, what sounded like, a terrible meal.

  • Very good response article. I hope Malone reads it