You probably assume your favorite sit-down
restaurant is serving you fresh food it's not a fast food place, after all. Sadly, that's not always the case. Even at fine dining restaurants, serving pre-made
food is more common than you might think. So unless you absolutely love reheated leftovers,
here are some clues to help you figure out when the food you're eating has been pre-made.
Fast food The biggest indicator that you're dining at
a restaurant serving pre-made food is how quickly your order arrives at the table. A freshly prepared meal that's made-to-order
takes time. What doesn't take much time is reheating pre-made
food. "Might I suggest a proper hot lunch? With Lunch Bucket?" If you're at a restaurant and the food comes
out lickety-split like drive-thru service, that's a telltale sign that the restaurant
is serving pre-made food.
After all, it should take a lot longer to
make a fresh risotto than it does to assemble a fast food burger. Too much variety One look at a menu offering dozens of dishes
can send your brain into a tizzy trying to figure out how the chef does it. Well, chances are he doesn't. An extensive menu means the chef has to have
all those ingredients on hand.
It's difficult to guarantee freshness along
with timeliness if there are too many options. "What was it we had for dinner tonight?" "Well, we had a choice. Steak, fish." "Yes, yes, I remember. I had lasagna." To solve this problem, chefs often use pre-made
food.
That can range from already packaged products
to preparing the meals in advance. Chain gang Often enough, the establishment you're dining
at is the first indicator that your meal is pre-made. Chain restaurants are consistent in their
meals for a reason: they're pre-made. "I want my baby back ribs." So if you've ever wondered why your alfredo
dish at Olive Garden looks and tastes the same no matter what Olive Garden you're at,
it's because there's probably not a chef in the back painstakingly preparing each dish.
Chain restaurants usually have a rigorous
process of food preparation that happens before it even reaches the restaurant. The food is mass produced, frozen, and then
heated and assembled according to strict guidelines. So yes, your alfredo will be the same every
single time you order it, and so will most of your other meals at chain restaurants. "Come on down to Olive Garden, for an inauthentic
Italian experience that is guaranteed to leave your family consistently disappointed." Texture blues Say you're at a restaurant and you order a
steak cooked rare.
You wait in anticipation, salivating over
the thought of slicing into a juicy, pink steak. Your order arrives and it looks just like
you imagined it would, except for the taste. You've had a rare steak before, but this tastes
more like rubber than meat. That's because your steak hit the microwave
before your plate.
Nobody wants that. "Ugh!" When you order food at a restaurant and the
textures are a bit off, you can be pretty sure that your meal wasn't fresh. Fish fry A menu containing nothing but fried seafood? That's a little fishy. Restaurants that only offer seafood in fried
form is a clear indicator that the restaurant doesn't serve fresh fish.
Breading and frying seafood is an easy way
for cooks to mask the fact that the fish was previously frozen. "Is your salmon fresh?" "Flown in today." "What time?" "I'll ask the chef." It's possible that they didn't even bread
the fish themselves. Food distributors offer a variety of pre-made
fried fish, so all the restaurant has to do is heat and serve. Next time you order up a plate of fish and
chips, don't be surprised if your fish was reheated in a deep fryer.
"Batter-fried fish! Gotta get that crispy golden, flakey, live
batter-fried fish!" No substitutes Leaving cheese or bacon off a burger shouldn't
be a problem. But how about ditching the mushrooms in your
veggie lasagna? If your servers say they can't make a substitution,
it's probably because that dish has already been made. "Is there ANYTHING on this menu that is not
swimming in gravy?" "Hang on, I'll go ask the chef." Making some menu items fresh from scratch
would take a great deal of time, not to mention slow down service. So if you notice that certain menu items can't
be substituted, odds are they're prepared it in advance, and reheated when you order.
"Is there anything here today that I ate,
that wasn't microwaved?" "The salad." Freezer burn Anyone who has prepared a frozen dinner can
easily attest to the flavors of freezer burn they can also detect it when a restaurant
serves it. Freezer burn changes the composition of your
food, resulting in off flavors, textures, and colors. This is especially noticeable when eating
meat. Before you even have a chance to bite into
the steak your waiter just placed in front of you, check to see if there are some grayish
spots.
If so, that's freezer burn. Sysco surprise Think that nobody can make an Angus country
fried steak like your favorite local restaurant? Think again. Many restaurants feature the same exact food
as other places, despite what they call it on the menu. It all has to do with food distribution...And
companies like Sysco.
Sysco is considered to be the largest food
supplier in North America, and they deliver to everyone from fast food to five star restaurants. With over 400,000 items in their catalog,
they can have an entire course covered from the appetizer to the dessert--like their chocolate
cakes, for instance, which are served all across the country. All the restaurant needs to do is heat and
serve. So if you see a Sysco truck parked outside
your favorite restaurant, you can guarantee your meal was fresh cooked...In a warehouse
1,000 miles away.
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