It’s hard to beat the food from a chef who’s on the tools in their own restaurant. Or wine from a vigneron who tends the vines and makes and sells their own wine. Consumers know this and would like to think all chefs own the restaurant they’re working in and all winemakers sell the wine they’ve made from the ground up. But that is rarely the case.
The reason consumers value that connection is they know instinctively that a chef, vigneron, craftsman or artist whose livelihood depends on what they are selling will make the most effort to get it right. They’ve got skin in the game. They are not constrained by the owner’s ambitions (which are most likely to be about making money as the first priority) and tastes (in every sense of the word). An owner can disappear behind a corporate veil so that the product is not such a personal reflection of them and that anonymity reduces their motivation to perform or create something special. To give it everything they’ve got. To go the extra mile.
This is especially the case with restaurants or artisan producers. If you are running a petrol station, the business will probably perform better if you are in attendance serving the customers but it can run just fine with good staff. You’re providing a service not creating a product. If you are a chef, producing dishes just the way you want them, getting feedback from customers is very important to success. It’s personal and your food is a reflection of you and on you. You’re highly motivated to get it right.
Wine is similar except that the process is more complex and the time from harvest to bottling so long, that consumers accept some variation on full ownership from vine to wine is inevitable. It remains the ideal with good reason though and wines made this way usually command the most respect and the highest prices. That’s why single vineyard wines are often the most highly prized.
If you want the best food, you’re most likely to find it where the proprietor/chef is on the tools in their own restaurant.