Commentary The restaurant has not always been with us. It was a product of the birth of the modern. It allowed talent and creativity to leave the confines of the castles and large estates that could afford them, and democratized access to cuisine for the multitudes. The restaurant allowed the highest and most fabulous delights of life to be in the reach of everyone. This also happened with painting, architecture, music, education, and all consumables but the point was especially prescient in the area of cuisine, which had long been seen as the proprietary reserve of the aristocracy. The invention of the public-access restaurant was a beautiful example of what Benjamin Constant called the difference in the liberty of the ancients and the moderns. In the ancient world, to be free meant to be legally privileged by birth, title, or position with access to power. You had some stake in the management of …