When the great Washington restaurant Le Pavillon closed in 1990, chef Yannick Cam theorized that, like great art, great food needed a patron, someone who would support, nurture and ultimately pay for the quality that the market would not.
Cam was obsessed with quality and paid whatever it cost to have the ultimate mushroom or the freshest sea urchins; he charged a lot, but not enough to cover his artistry.
I thought of him when I read the news that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would be purchasing The Washington Post.