My experience is that it is easier to produce good small dishes than good entrees. I have been to all too many high end restaurants with great entrees, great desserts, but mediocre entrees. A woman friend of mine is convinced that these places are aimed at women who ignore their main course and “save the calories” for a megadose of chocolate. She is a main course sort.

Since a main dish has about the same level of variety across the plate as the appetizer, but is much larger, the challenge is getting a high enough flavor density, achieving a thematic balance and providing enough internal variety. This can require a fair bit of technique and control if only for simple physical reasons. This is also why a lot of restaurants have mediocre main dishes. Moving to small plates is actually the easy way to improve the quality of the food overall.

…the cosmological constant problem, global warming, extreme poverty…

One of these things is not like the others.

Go to an Italian restaurant, then. I’ve never once been able to finish a main course at the Italian restaurant my family goes to when we’re in Champaign.

I once ordered a some dish with steak and potatoes. But what I got was a huge steak and only two small pieces of potatoes. So, I asked if I could have more potatoes. I got another dish with potatoes but that was still not enough, so I had to order again.

And if you buy a sandwich with ham, what you get is a huge piece of ham with a microscopic piece of bread. So, it is very hard to get enough carbohydrates in the US. It seems that the whole country is on the Atkins diet.

If you savor the meal as a multi-level sensory experience rather than a obligatory intake of calories

I’m from northern England – that sentence makes no sense to me whatsoever.