You have fallen victim to a common misconception about fine food. There is NO difference in culinary value between a 100 dollar quenelle of caviar and a single humble English pea pod, only a perceived difference. It's hard to explain, but consider someone like Sean Brock, a highly regarded chef in Charleston, SC, who literally revived certain heirloom vegetables from extinction because they have intrinsic value. Nothing else tastes quite like the gold rice cultivar that he has brought back from the dead. His labor to give the diner something they have never tasted before is what constitutes the costs, not how much he paid his meat purveyor for your cut of beef.

Here, I have gone to (perhaps unnecessarily) great lengths to make sure that every slice of each vegetable on this plate tastes EXACTLY as it should. That was my goal and ultimately my accomplishment. The labor involved and the resulting taste of this dish, a portrait of the flavors of these spring vegetables that can only be captured when the ingredients are right and the preparation careful, is the value here. The presentation is secondary.