Some People Will Count Anything

A writer in New York Magazine counted the calories in the $250 fixed-price lunch menu at the famous restaurant Per Se. He actually took part or all of the food served, slipped it into plastic bags, smuggled it to a laboratory, and got a true reading. The result: "the nine courses tallied 1,230.8 calories, 59.7 grams of fat, and 101.7 grams of carbs. The total rises to 2,416.2 calories, 107.8 grams of fat, and 203.7 grams of carbs if you include the extras: a salmon amuse-bouche, wine, dinner rolls with butter, and chocolate candies. These might not seem like giant numbers, but that one lunch has 60 percent more fat than the average adult, on a 2,000-calorie regimen, should eat in a day, according to the FDA." Equivalent: "four and a half Big Macs."

Unlikely as most of us are to eat at this paragon of famous dining, I'm sure we are grateful for this piece of investigative journalism, especially now that we can calibrate the ratio of finest-dining calories to Big Mac calories. To read the breakdown, course by course read: Per Se, Per Calorie: Never mind the $250 bill, what price will your waistline pay for the city’s most extravagant meal? by Charles Stuart Platkin. I learned about this article through the blog marginalrevolution.com.