“On one end £9 of labour cost for a plate of asparagus seems deeply inefficient and unrealistic”

Every time I’ve had this thought that I could recreate a dish and spend a lot less, I end up paying more for the same dish, with lower quality and I still have to do the dishes. It might not be as unrealistic as it seems if you aggregate the wages of all staff involved and divide it by the number of plates they serve over a night. I’m not a cook, but if someone offered me $9 to prepare them a comparable asparagus dish, it doesn’t sound that lucrative.