the tasting menu text by FRANÇOIS SIMON It has become a grand classic in the new generation of restaurants: when you are seated, they don’t bring you a menu; instead, a charming individual comes to your table: — We are offering the chef’s new tasting menu, which consists of either eight or 15 sequences. Do you have any allergies? — Yes, to tasting menus! Of course, he or she doesn’t even hear you, the machine already having been launched into its famous “sequences,” these coïtus interruptus items arriving as little bites, nibbles, onomatopeias, spoonfuls, and other minimal ellipses. The tasting menu came into being a few years ago. In theory, we’re stuck with it for three or four years. Like slow leaks inside tall buildings, pools form slowly, dripping methodically from floor to floor: restaurants in the French provinces will soon be offering them if they aren’t already doing so. The tasting menu was…