@1 Agreed, another step in the wrong direction. Take me back to the days when a casserole could just be a casserole, and the waitress knew what a loose meat sandwich was! And serving food you picked up off the ground in a public park? Talk about eww, this is what the supermarket is for!
@3 take your peanut butter to the suburbs, mom. I don't frequent restaurants that serve expensive dishes like this either, but this is not a step in the wrong direction. The variety of interesting flavors around us is amazing, and this dish is making use of them in an interesting way.
Also: vegetables from the ground...?! Um, yep.
In the absence of actual journalism, I was entertained by what is essentially a puff piece... which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
To paraphrase Bill Murray in 'Groundhog Day: '
Different is good.