Thanks for solving! While the inspiration for the seeds of this puzzle was more immediately edible, it reminded me of this 2004 New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwell, which provided the germ of the theme clues.
Next time! (The story of Grey Poupon in the Gladwell article is interesting. Though mustard is basically just the foil and is never mentioned for the rest of the piece!)
When I was a junior in high school we went to an informational session for Northwestern University. The parking lot was all Bentleys and Beemers. As we were stopped at a light leaving in the family minivan, a beat up Ford Taurus rolled their window down, so we did too. “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?”
30 years later it’s still funny. Thanks for the memory!
Nice one! I had no frame of reference for the 13A clue - I got it from crosses pretty early, and then I spent the rest of the puzzle trying to find what kind of wordplay made it make sense, and how to apply that to the more elusive (to me) 1D, haha