Food Gripe

I had been laid up for a week or so and had been eating my own cooking perforce. My cooking is pretty darned good but I wanted a change so I drove a mile up the road to the local restaurant/watering hole. For an appetizer I ordered these pretty good fried cheese-filled raviolis. Marinara sauce accompanied the dish. I was a little surprised when the marinara sauce showed up in these little sealed plastic tubs; they were kind enough to give me two of them. One taste was gag-worthy - sickeningly and cloyingly sweet. Reading the fine print, i.e., the ingredients list, showed, from most to least, water, tomato paste, High Fructose Corn Syrup, a half a dozen mystery chemicals (preservatives, thickeners, artificial flavorings), vinegar, and, you guessed it, a half a dozen mystery chemicals more. How dare they call that little heap of semi-coagulated goo marinara sauce. I'm not even sure it was ever cooked. It's not just an insult to Italy, but it's an assault on the health and tastes of our society. Think of our children growing up expecting that since it's what they've known all their lives. Stern shakes of the finger must go to the manufacturers, restaurants, and the food industry for pushing this stuff. And a big shake of the fist at us for tolerating it.

Whew!

BSwan,

It is sad what is passed off as food nowadays. As the confession an old Junk Food Junkie, I am now at a loss of 40 lbs, simply by cooking my own. What's funny is that even as the world's worst cook I am still eating better than what the fast food industry provides!

As my dad said many ,many times: Just shut up and eat it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BSwan

I had been laid up for a week or so and had been eating my own cooking perforce. My cooking is pretty darned good but I wanted a change so I drove a mile up the road to the local restaurant/watering hole. For an appetizer I ordered these pretty good fried cheese-filled raviolis. Marinara sauce accompanied the dish. I was a little surprised when the marinara sauce showed up in these little sealed plastic tubs; they were kind enough to give me two of them. One taste was gag-worthy - sickeningly and cloyingly sweet. Reading the fine print, i.e., the ingredients list, showed, from most to least, water, tomato paste, High Fructose Corn Syrup, a half a dozen mystery chemicals (preservatives, thickeners, artificial flavorings), vinegar, and, you guessed it, a half a dozen mystery chemicals more. How dare they call that little heap of semi-coagulated goo marinara sauce. I'm not even sure it was ever cooked. It's not just an insult to Italy, but it's an assault on the health and tastes of our society. Think of our children growing up expecting that since it's what they've known all their lives. Stern shakes of the finger must go to the manufacturers, restaurants, and the food industry for pushing this stuff. And a big shake of the fist at us for tolerating it.

Whew!

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I agree totally with you.

Here's a quote:

"Several years ago, researchers at Cornell University and Michigan State University conducted a study of restaurants in three local markets over a 10-year period. They concluded the following: After the first year 27% of restaurant startups failed; after three years, 50% of those restaurants were no longer in business; and after five years 60% had gone south. At the end of 10 years, 70% of the restaurants that had opened for business a decade before had failed."

There are a lot of reasons why restaurants fail, but serving bad food has to be one of the major ones. You won't be back. You'll tell your friends and they'll tell their friends. Poof, there is a this "space for rent" sign in the front window!

A few years ago, I started taking on a much bigger role in the purchasing and preparation of our dinners. I also started reading ingredient labels on prepared foods. It was an eye opening experience. We eat out much less than we did before and we cook much more from scratch.

Probably bad food and service are the main reasons restaurants fail, location may be another. There are eating places in my home town of Kansas City that have almost no service, are in a bad location with the floor so slick with grease you almost have to hang on the something yet they've thrived for over 70 years because the food is legendary.

Bob,
I can't even imagine a "restaurant" serving "marinara" sauce in pre-packed, sealed containers. I COULD imagine same in a fast food Taco Bell type location but certainly NOT is a local watering hole. AND, then again, we ain't talkin Evanston :)

Mark

I am probably more conscious about what is in my dogs food, than my own sometimes. Maybe because they can't read the labels, although at times I swear they can read, but prefer to be waited on hand and foot (PAW?) CAN I GET FRIES WITH THAT!!

Best regards, Dave who cooks everything in a toaster.

Unfortunately for the consumer, MOST of the time the quality of restaurant food is directly related to the price you pay for it unless the items are specialities of the house. It's not necessarily because of the quality of the food, but the prep & skill required to make everything from scratch. Not every restaurant has a real chef or someone on staff who has the talent & skill to make sauces, soups, dressings and the other goodies that most restaurants buy already prepared. It costs a lot less in salary and time to buy crap in a can, bag, box, bottle or jar, especially when you factor in shelf life and portion control. Of course some restaurant owners go that route only because they are lazy, cheap, stupid and undeserving of any business they get. That's one of the reasons so many fail.

Sorta like this guy!

I always tell folks if you want a real eye opener, go to a Sam's Club, Costco or one of the other warehouse stores and peruse the isles, ESPECIALLY the frozen food section. You will often see some of your favorite restaurant entrees, appetizers and desserts all ready to go in a big bag with LOTS of extra ingredients thrown in. Think about that the next time you order jalapenos poppers, wings, potato skins, zucchini sticks and other menu staples. Another thing I've done is watch what gets delivered to my favorite hash house from the suppliers. If you see lots of cartons and cans on the hand truck and not a lot of fresh veggies, you know what you are in for!

Bon appitite!

Here's one reason small restaurants 'fail'.

Someone has a vision of opening a 'ggod' restaurant. They either like to cook, think they'll make a lot of money, or have a solid business plan and have found what they think is a good location,etc...

Almost all of the folks who open a restaurant want to serve the 'best' food they can. No one starts out thinking 'I can buy this cheap crap and then pawn it off on the public as good food.'

Many start out actualy going to the produce marts and butcher shops and picking out the fresh food they want to prepare....

So, usually a new place has decent food quality, and if the service is good, folks will come there a lot and they will prosper....

Then, it starts...In walks good old Bill (or Bob, John, or whomever), a food 'wholesaler' who will 'deliver' their food right to the back door..and save them money...

They insist on 'quality' and for the next few months/years maybe, they maintain it...

But they are bombarded with other salesfolks. ALL of them trying to sell them food products and take their business away from Bill (or whichever food wholesale place they are currently dealing with). To do this, they offer to 'save' them more money....but to do this they have to convince them that the quality is decent...

Eventually, the restauranteur will 'settle' on a wholesaler that he/she likes...and build a relationship with them. Then, they start getting..'this is cheaper, it will save you money, and your customers won't notice a thing'...or' you can cut the portions size back, just a little, no one will notice'. And over time, they start taking shortcuts here and there...packaged sauces, because it saves time and money...precut meat 'porions'...cheaper and saves time...'cheaper' cuts of meat, lower 'graded' beef and chicken...but the quality decline shows to some of their customers, who stop coming...then they HAVE to save money, since the profits are dropping, and it's always believed that the way to save is to 'spend less' (No one ever seems to consider upping quality and value so they can EARN MORE). Thus the decline in quality spirals out of control, more people have bad experiences and stop coming...restaurant fails.

It happens so often in this manner I'm surprised that the industry hasn't stepped in with some kind of intervention or training to help prevent it.

We eat out a lot. We like to try the 'new' places that pop up, and many are excellent at first...but eventually... we stop eating there.

Buddy

We have a local pizza shop, a true Mom-n-Pop, that was incredible. Everything was made in-house, in plain sight of the customers, and they made some fantastic specialty pizzas. Then the owner had some health set-backs and they sold out to another Mom-n-Pop who cut all the corners and the place died. We had been regulars and suddenly you couldn't pay me to eat there. I'm happy to say that the original owners have since bought back the shop and have been slowly rebuilding the reputation and the business, and they are succeeding even in these hard times. Why? Because they have incredibly good pizza.

If you want good (for you) food, you've gotta make it yourself. Trans-fat, corn syrup, and a list of things you can't pronounce aren't good for you. Unfortunately we've grown accustom to running the rat race and cooking is just another chore, so fast and prepackaged food has become an essential part of life for many people. Big food is in business to sell food and make money doing it, and as long as it doesn't outright kill you or make you immediately ill, the health impact isn't much their concern.