The chef recommends . . .

The topic over at Tom Sietsema's food chat is whether it's ok to ask a chef to change his or her food for you. My dashed off post is below:

Like other people, I think it depends. At an "important" restaurant, I would never change anything unless it literally makes me sick. I mean, what is the point of Minibar or Citronelle or Alinea or Per Se or French Laundry if you're going to micro-manage these people? The food is what it is. At a lesser place without grandiose aspirations, I think it's ok to change things (though I personally don't do it). No one is going to make a face if you want your Mcdonald's cheeseburger without ketchup. It's a distinction between gastronomy, I guess, and eating. The closer you get to the former, and the further from the latter, the less acceptable it is to monkey with the food.

Thinking more about it, I've come up with this informal taxonomy of the eating v. gastronomy spectrum. The dashed line roughly divides up where I think it's no longer ok to ask for substantial changes in the food. For reference, my views on Prune are here and Babbo here.