Leave it to a dude who has been around since Banchet invented fire to school the rest of us in how to throw down a classy marketing strategy.

Here's the news item:

Miramar Bistro encourages guests to forgo the regular menu and place themselves in the accomplished culinary hands of Executive Chef Roland Liccioni. During dinner hours from Sunday through Thursday, Liccioni is ready and willing to whip up virtually any kind of degustation menu imaginable. All the guests need do is instruct the chef on their desired number of courses, taste preferences, allergies and budget. The rest is up to Liccioni -- and an elaborate, unique dinner is sure to follow.

As a former cook, this kind of prospect would seem to conjure up its own kind of Hurt Locker.  Imagine the people who want a degustation of four courses for $25.  But as a former cook, I was no Liccioni.  I hadn't come up through all the ranks of the kind of crazy French kitchen brigades he has.  (I did work for one crazy French chef, that was enough to put me off cooking entirely.)

As a customer, this kind of prospect made me dance around my office. Think of it: Guests actually ordering what they want to eat -- not some meal a chef feels they should eat.

In an age when you can't toss a side of pork without hitting a chef who is creating the experience they want instead of the experience the guest wants, this DIY degu is shockingly brilliant.

And it reminded me of this great video on Joseph Pine at TED.  Because the idea is not to cheapen your product because you'll turn into a commodity.  But to somehow turn it into a valuable experience people will want to pay for. 

And Liccioni has accomplished that in a way that still manages to acknowledge that we are in a recession.