Mentsch1, if someone wants to make a point by saying we should all be eating only bread, the point will be lost.
We should all be working on limiting gashmiyus (at least during the week; I’m not so sure about Shabbos and Yom Tov) even though we are far below the ideal. There’s plenty of room for growth, and it’s not all or nothing. The Mesilas Yesharim is a valid source that we strive towards prishus, but it must be put into context.
The problem with the halachic dinner is that it absolutely glorifies pleasure seeking as a Torah value, which is backwards. It’s one thing to enjoy a good cholent on Shabbos, or even a hot dog or steak during the week, but the search for exotic, unusual foods is qualitatively a worse act of pleasure seeking, and is taking us backwards instead of forwards in the quest to connect to kedushah. I do not think newbee presented it this way.
Simcha613, I agree that making it about a particular group completely clouds and distort the issue, but don’t dismiss a very legitimate point, just because you don’t like the way it was made.
It shouldn’t be about knocking a group, or even individuals. There’s nothing very productive about that.
We should see, however, how far our pursuit of our ta’avos has taken us, and take the mussar to work on ourselves and hopefully reverse the trend.