What is Digg?102 Comments
- brstilson, on 08/01/2008, -3/+51Gordon Ramsay is ***** a brick right now.
- HaloZero, on 07/31/2008, -1/+35It's not just these national groups too, a local Korean restaurant in Berkeley (Gomnaru) ramen is in fact just one of those pre-packaged Korean ramen bowls you can get at Asian supermarkets, they just charge you $2 to boil it for you.
Of course they don't tell you that, I just noticed them doing it once. - pintomp3, on 08/01/2008, -0/+34WTF
"Our fully cooked Classic Brand SmartServe glazed chicken breast fillets have the appearance, taste and texture of a whole chicken breast at a much lower cost, plus they offer better portion control, consistent quality and easy preparation." "Unique 3-D technology gives you the look and texture of a solid muscle chicken breast, at a fraction of the cost."
http://www.sysco.com/products/productpage_search.a ... - KingBroseph, on 08/01/2008, -2/+35More importantly why are we buying food from the guy who did the "thong song"?
- inactive, on 08/01/2008, -0/+32when i was a teenager, i worked at a restaurant at fisherman's wharf in S.F...they used "Snows Clam Chowder" and advertised it as homemade...
- GrossEats, on 08/01/2008, -6/+25"Like any retailer, chefs need wholesalers that distribute goods cheaply and efficiently"
No, they need to learn how to cook and stop being lazy. I'd hate myself if I worked at a five star restaurant that served this crap. - xstarsprinklesx, on 08/01/2008, -0/+19Yeah, it was bad enough when he started selling routers.
- TonyTheTerrible, on 08/01/2008, -1/+19non-fast food restaurants that pass off ready made meals as their own are just *****. i know all the chilies and applebees related semi-fast food restaurants do it, but 5 stars too? its a damn shame, but when theres a wall-mart equivalent restaurant wholesaler like sysco present its going to happen. i dont really have a problem with it until you charge a 300% markup on something you just defrosted an heated and got away with it because nothing on your menu is under $30.
*rant over* - Mononuclear, on 08/01/2008, -1/+19Read the article. Most of the 5 star restaurants just buy raw materials from Sysco. Just because a company also sells ready made meals doesn't mean every customer of said company uses them. Sysco also sells fresh raw local materials that chefs buy in bulk to cook their own dishes. There is no difference in this or buying it at the local market except it's cheaper and they deliver it to you.
- Abomonog, on 08/01/2008, -5/+20I used to work at one of these restaurants in Florida. These rich bastards would come in and want a meal that takes 2 hours to prepare in 5 minutes. This would happen even though they knew that certain meals required pre-ordering during the reservation call. We kept "TV dinner" versions of those meals just for customers like this. If you want to be an ***** you can pay $110 for Swanson for all I care.
One customer was so bad we dressed up a cockroach all nice and pretty for him just before we threw his ass out the door.
I don't blame these restaurants for going mass production style at all. The rich have no manners at all in restaurants.
Footnote: You would be surprised how good a cockroach looks after a an A class chef has gotten his hands on it. - Mononuclear, on 08/01/2008, -1/+15Where are chefs supposed to get the ingredients for the food they cook? The goods here doesn't refer exclusively to ready made meals. Salt, Oranges, Beef, etc are also goods supplied by Sysco. Most 5-star restaurants buy the core ingredients and make their own food.
- gambl0r, on 08/01/2008, -0/+12That was my first thought as well.
You can't serve that, you donkey! IT'S RAAAAAAW! - thephosphorbox, on 08/01/2008, -2/+13Who the hell taught you to open a can like that, you worthless piece of refuse!! Get out of my kitchen!!
- greatgatsbyII, on 08/01/2008, -0/+11I'll bet chain restaurants such as Chili's pull off a lot of this reheating frozen meals.
- XenophobicAlien, on 08/01/2008, -0/+11Most of the desserts you order in restaurants are from sysco, this is a well known fact in the food business. Also most of the fried foods you order are from sysco. Do you really think someone is back in the kitchen perfectly battering up that chicken fried steak for you? Nope, it's sysco.
- daengbo, on 08/01/2008, -0/+11True, but Sysco supplies much more that just french fries and chicken Kiev. I've done a fair amount of fine dining cooking, and you get the non-exotic stuff from a purveyor like Sysco and special order the other stuff, unless of course you live in SoCo and just drive to the farmers' market in the morning for everything. Heck... the last French place I was in, we did all our own butchery, and we STILL had a major purveyor walking in the back door three times a week.
While I'm at it, I disagree with the article when it says "Restaurants make a mint from serving these pre-prepped foods...." They really don't. The food cost for these types of foods run 35-50%, when doing everything from scratch gets you 15-20% in fine dining. The pre-packaged Kiev is just a lot more consistent (-ly bad) than what your prep cook is going to turn out, though.
The ones who are making a mint are in the flour-and-water business: pasta shops, pizzarias, and bakeries. - arcticblue, on 08/01/2008, -2/+12Sysco does the food at most military installations also (I haven't RTFA yet). All the food you eat in boot camp is prepared by Sysco. I'm sure most have you have heard the rumor that they put stuff in the food that keeps you from getting a hard-on while in boot camp. Well, when I was going home on leave one time, I was actually sitting next to the president of Sysco and I asked him about his rumor. He said that is absolutely not happening and if he finds out if something like that is actually going on, then he would personally make sure that everyone there would be fired immediately. Just thought I'd pass that on.
- inactive, on 08/01/2008, -1/+11everything suddenly tastes... less good.
- inactive, on 08/01/2008, -0/+10You can't poop because the food (and MRE's) have too much carbs and protein. Try the Chichlets in the MRE - they are full of laxative.
- sandpaperback, on 08/01/2008, -1/+113D is making a comback this year. Working its way into what we eat is only natural. Who wants 2D chicken boobies?
- Clodhopper, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9Haha, I heard about this before. When I was in basic i couldn't take a ***** for a week. Few guys in our platoon who were also going through the same thing were saying how they put stuff in the food and that's the reason why. I just chalked it up to typical stress.
- MikeSD34, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9I would be more concerned with why there was a cockroach in the kitchen of a restaurant that charges $110 for a meal.
- WinnemuccaMac, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9THIS is the king of story I like seeing on digg. It's about time I saw something that wasn't a partisan campaign story or "The Fifteen _______iest ________s"
- marx2k, on 08/01/2008, -1/+10"I'm sure most have you have heard the rumor that they put stuff in the food that keeps you from getting a hard-on while in boot camp. Well, when I was going home on leave one time, I was actually sitting next to the president of Sysco and I got a hard on"
Much better story - jackcrack7, on 08/01/2008, -0/+8I thought that a lot of people knew this. My father works for Sysco as a delivery driver and it's kind of interesting because he always lets us know which restaurants to stay away from after seeing their kitchens. My wife works at the local Marriott in the restaurant and they don't try to hide that most of their stuff is frozen. I was in there last week and someone wanted to order a slice of cheesecake but wanted to know if it contained any nut products. Their server actually brought the box out for them to look at.
- devolved, on 08/01/2008, -0/+8At least it's not HD chicken.
- AdamWest2122, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8Long story short, impatient holier than thou father storms out of restaurant with family for having to wait a couple minutes, and misses a great meal and great service...
This reminds me of a visit to restaurant a long while back. I was there with my family, we had just been seated but no drink order had been taken yet. A very well dressed family came in, father, mother, and two kids. I noticed the father almost instantly when they entered, he kept looking at his watch and whispering to his wife about something.
They got seated near us. Also no drink order at the moment. I over heard him say "Ok, she has 2 minutes to ask us about drinks.", two minutes passes and he jumps up and proclaims he is leaving, his family get up also. This prompts the manager to come, the manager apologizes and takes the drink order himself if they agree to stay. The father agrees, they sit down.
Then the father said "Ok, that is two drinks and two sodas, he has 5 minutes or we leave.", at the five minute mark I can see the manager placing the drinks onto a tray. The father jumps up and again proclaims they are leaving because it had been 6 minutes and that he is a paying customer and does not pay anyone to wait for anything, nor does his family and that this is disgusting, he blew up at two different waitresses.
Then some other family who had drinks, decided to jump in and proclaim he was right, that ten minutes to get their order is unacceptable, the whole lot stormed out of the restaurant. About three minutes later a waitress came to our table, she looked scared to death when she apologized about the long wait. We reassured her it was ok, never start a conversation with an argument.
She thanked us like we were GODS and apologized that three girls had called in for this shift, there was only the two waitresses and over 50 customers, and that she was trying to do her best. End of story, drinks were good, food was too, and the waitress got a good tip because despite being overwhelmed she still got every ones orders right, found time to visit every of her tables a second and third time.
I felt very badly for those kids and that wife then at this point, to have a father and husband like that. If you set the bar so high no one could reach it then you will never be satisfied in your entire life. If he would have given a minute more here and a couple there, they would probably have a great meal served by a very nice waitress. But they were just too important to wait. - inactive, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7so what...
- U2groupie, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8How many of you own restaurants? I use Sysco for 90% of the food and products at mine. Most of my food order is raw ingredients to make the food ourselves. And I'm not a five-star restaurant either, more a short-order cafe.
But, there are some things where it is just not feasible to make them from scratch yourself. Desserts and pastries especially. Do you have any idea how much I would have to charge if I made my cinnamon rolls myself every morning? Prep-time and wastage are the biggest money-sinks in the food industry. Anything that saves time and wastage keeps my bottom-line in line. - digghasnoethics, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8You can tell what you are getting when they mention "5 Stars". In the world of fine restaurants the only thing that matters (and can't be bought) is a Michelin star, and they go up to 3 stars and are the only thing chefs lust after.
I'll bet 3 Star Michelin restaurants aren't using precooked meals. - thephosphorbox, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7Yeah that makes me cringe. I'm going to be thinking of that every time I order chicken from now on.. I wonder how many times I've eaten that already....
- NCg8r, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7Rich people want more for less, and they want it now. I worked at a resort hotel for a few years and I would rather serve soup in a rescue mission than deal with New Money @$$holes again.
- brstilson, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6Actually Ramsay on Fox is far angrier and bombastic than he in on BBC if you compare both versions of "Kitchen Nightmares." Of course, on BBC he goes to restaurants where the owners are a lot more open-minded, polite, and willing to learn/change. The restaurants he goes to in the states are owned by positively deluded ***** who aren't qualified to run a children's lemonade stand and think there's nothing wrong with their restaurant (despite the fact that they're hemmorhaging money).
- p106peppy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6I worked in the kitchen at a summer camp that used sysco food..... yeah there are a lot of prepackaged things, but there is a lot of just plain generic food too like flour, tomatoes, and canned peaches. just because someone uses sysco as their supplier doesnt mean that they're using the premade stuff.
- BobMysterioso, on 08/01/2008, -1/+7WHOA NOW!
What about the McRib? - wolferz, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6I used to work a a deli who's food was provided by sysco. Almost all of the foods we had were raw ingredients, except...
Our soups were pre-made and frozen... but still quite good.
Our bread was prepared into dough but not allowed to rise and not baked (we did those two steps our selves)
And our sausage and (roast) beef for sandwiches and salads were precooked.
We cooked our own chicken for our baked wings and sandwiches, sliced our own tomatoes, chopped our own lettuce, cabbage, onions, green peepers, meats, all sliced and diced and prepped by us. Mixed our own potato salad, congealed salad, pasta salad, and macaroni salad. The works. Prep at the beginning and end of each shift was a total bitch.
*shrug* Some of the best food in town too.
We did have occasional problems getting fresh tomatoes and lettuce out of them though... - Elliuotatar, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6Yes actually, I did. (Well, I would, if I'd ever ordered a chicken fried steak in my life.)
I'm sure if people knew restaurants did this, then they would reconsider eating out as often. I don't pay a premium price for restaraunt food so that I can get a TV dinner I could cook at home for half the price and in a quarter of the time.
Several months ago I had a dessert of orange sherbet inside a frozen orange rind at a local Chinese restaraunt which was highly rated. I later found a similar dessert in the frozen food section of my supermarket under the brand name "Amercian Bistro" for half the price. I bought that dessert and tried it, and discovered it was both presented and tasted exactly the same. I was pissed, because I knew then that what I'd paid $5 for at the restaraunt (acutally, $6, when you consider I tip 20%) was actually this frozen preprepared dessert they'd just taken out of a box and stuck on a plate.
Another time I was eating a local hot dog cart, and the owner wasn't around, and I commented on how I liked the chilli they put on the hotdogs, and the girl working there part time happily offered up the info that the chili they used was a particular brand from Sam's club. I'd thought it was made fresh. I never ate their chili dogs again.
But that wasn't because the chili wasn't made fresh. I'm not that fussy. Heh. It was because two days after they told me what brand they used... that brand of chili was recalled due to a botulism scare, but they were still using it. And I didn't want to eat at a place that cared that little about food safety, even if their hot dogs were the best in town. :-( - wedges, on 08/01/2008, -1/+7couldn't be any worse than this Dharma Initiative Breakfast Burrito I'm eating.
- jswanner, on 08/01/2008, -1/+7they come in flavors, one of which is fajita... who knew that was a flavor?
- Wolfie351, on 08/01/2008, -0/+5My experience with one of the top two food wholesalers (we're a manufacturer).
Wholesaler: We are moving to a larger distribution facility and are asking for financial donations
Me: Sorry, we can't help. We already sell you our goods on very slim margins, barely making a profit.
Wholesaler: Ok, we understand. Oh, by the way, we are no longer going to buy your products - madpuppy, on 08/01/2008, -2/+7True, If I went to a "fine" restaurant ( olive garden and outback are not) I would expect a meal made by a chef and staff, California grill in the Contemporary hotel in Disney world comes to mind. but, If you cannot tell when something is made fresh and something is heated from frozen you have more problems then the domination of Sysco foods.
- ZurMacht, on 08/01/2008, -0/+5I'm so glad I live in a small place where ma and pa places, who actually prepare their own food and buy locally, are the standard. I used to live in Vegas and this kind of garbage was the norm...
- inactive, on 08/01/2008, -2/+7"Read the article."
Haha! You must be new here... The average Digger does this:
1. Read sensationalist, attention-grabbing headline
2. Briefly skim summary under headline rather than reading the article
3. Write comments denouncing the article's subject
4. ???
5. Diggs! - merm, on 08/01/2008, -3/+8>There is no difference in this or buying it at the local market except it's cheaper and they deliver it to you.
If the chef is buying from the supermarket (Walmart for example) I'd agree - but there's a HUGE difference between getting it through Sysco vs a LOCAL market (i.e. farmer's market).
Not all food is the same. A tomato is not just a tomato anymore, and a piece of steak most certainly isn't just a piece of steak. Where your food comes from can make all the difference. - icndvl, on 08/01/2008, -0/+5If you can't tell the difference between fresh and frozen you deserve to be ripped off. When I go to the pub and order fish and chips I know its frozen, but its cheap too =). Now if I paid $30 for frozen food I'd probably just get up and leave without paying.
- Valiantheart, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4Sounds like you guys need to hire an Iron Chef
- inactive, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4If you're going to a top dollar restaurant, chances are if they bought anything from Sysco, it's raw food products only. The headline is inaccurate, which is obviously rebuked in the article. If you're going to a chain restaurant, it's more likely that your food is pre-made to various degrees, but hey, you're paying for the convenience of not having to cook it yourself I suppose.
- neognostic, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4The deeper issue here is food safety, a great deal of Sysco's products are prepared in China. Think your chicken fried steak is safe? It is most likely slaughtered in the U.S. frozen, shipped to China where it is processed and then shipped back to the U.S. Here is just one article on import issues.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/311448_chinafo ... -
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