Food and Cooking

As a condiment it works so much better if ground fresh & people tend to know whether or not they like pepper with a specific type of dish or not.

As for the ritual, pepper remains more expensive than salt, but in the past pepper was extremely costly outside of the regions where it is grown, and not something that could be left on a table or necessarily with anyone except the head waiter, so to retain the "tonight we're being fancy" effect, some places still do the whole palaver.

Though I guess they just don't want people running off with the pepper grinders. Unlike the other stuff diners pinch from tables, big tall grinders with good mechanisms are expensive and suppliers don't tend to sell them at a discount or bundled for cheap with other items.

Have never been to a restaurant that did not provide salt at the table, including some that are as fancy as they come. There was a brief phase in the 1990s where one would get these rumours of some famous chef or other [they were never named, funnily] refusing to allow salt at the table & flying out of the kitchen to berate any hapless diner who sought it. Other than that, chefs know better than most that everyone's palate is different, and that the diner is the one putting the food into their body. No matter how sure a chef is of their own culinary genius, they're also pretty into wanting people to enjoy eating their meals, even if some of the nuances will be lost on those who add salt as a matter of course. It only takes a week or so to reeducate one's palate away from wanting added salt, but a meal out probably isn't the best time to start trying to make the switch.