If you want to eat an $8 cheeseburger, you will have no trouble finding one. If you don't want to try a restaurant's attempt to "elevate" a burger --- and I don't blame you --- don't order it. It's not all a scam. The $25 burger is its own genre, and there is a market for it.

We had a story a year or so back about the best cheeseburger in the country (according to one respected reviewer, whose reviews generated lines around the block for places). It was in the $8 genre, and people were upset!

I'm not very cultured so I had to google what fois gras is.

Enlarged duck liver, typically liver 10x larger than normal, usually through force feeding. Banned in some countries.

I'm surprised in the current age of being socially aware that this seems to be a trending food?

It's..."foie gras".