Are You Dining at Home Illegally?
You’re a chef, some friends invite friends over to your house for dinner, and before you know it you’re in violation of several public ordinances. I swear, officer, I thought the linguine was on the level!
You’re a chef, some friends invite friends over to your house for dinner, and before you know it you’re in violation of several public ordinances. I swear, officer, I thought the linguine was on the level!
I’ll take an invite!
Yeah so far there are few laws regulating dinner parties here in Louisville. You’re on!
– Joe
Me too !
You’re on the list, just don’t tell the cops!
– Joe
But of course the moment you charge money, it’s not really a dinner party, is it? Especially when the price is comparable to a restaurant’s.
There’s a guy in Paris who’s been doing this for decades. Inconveniently for me, his place is often known as “Chez Jim”. I actually went there in the Eighties when it was still the hippy pot luck it sort of purports to be (when I called more recently, he told me to “bring the money in a recycled envelope”, which I really thought was a bit much). There are still lots of articles and blog posts on it talking about what a friendly affair it is – and omitting the fact that it costs to attend.
The problem with anything that’s been gently tolerated for a while getting too popular is that it attracts attention and also raises the odds of something going wrong. Let there be one serious outbreak associated with one of these and watch for things to get ugly.
I see your point, but I can’t get behind the idea of policing dinners in peoples homes. And as far outbreaks go, there’s one at every block party, no? That’s why I stay away from the deviled eggs. We need some unregulated corners of our food world, methinks. If it’s dinners for ten and the cook makes a hundred bucks, I’m not going to get bent out of shape.
– Joe