"Those restaurants that get their food from Sysco and GFS where the food tastes the same."
That is the gist of what a farmer friend of mine said about certain restaurants. That felt like an inside joke, unless you know how most restaurants work.
Owning a restaurant is hard. If you have read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, you have some sense of what goes into food ordering in New York City with a lot more resources to get quality food into a restaurant.
In a small town where we both were (she lives there, I was visiting), there are not huge markets where chefs in restaurants can go to find local, quality food. Ordering food is easier if you can get large trucks to deliver basic supplies. This is where Sysco and Gordon Food Service (GFS) have made their mark.
You might have even gone to the GFS stores. A great place to get takeaway cups and dispensers. Not the best place to buy ketchup.
Sysco and GFS and other similar companies provide food to restaurants, cafeterias, and other food places. The food is safe, clean, and cheap. Restaurants cite costs as a burden. If they think the customers won't care about an item, they will likely find the cheapest version.
The standard American palette likely doesn't care, or not enough to voice concern. They may not care that certain foods taste the same no matter where they might go. The fast food industry relies on the idea that you will get the same food, regardless of location. Sysco and GFS likely service more restaurants than McDonald's has locations.
My first food working experience was at the gone but not forgotten Bill Knapp's. Bill Knapp's was a regional, family restaurant chain with its food trucks. The food came about 75 miles down the highway; proprietary food to be a Bill Knapp's location. Food trucks, in this incarnation, are quite valuable to restaurants.
You might react by citing this story as yet another example of food snobbery. "You said the food is safe, clean, and cheap. So what?" We cite "know your farmer, know your food" so the similar cry would be "know the truck, know your food." Information is power.
The customers who eat at the places serviced by Sysco and GFS should know where their food comes from. They aren't likely to care but they should know. They might like the idea of uniformity and presentation in the spirit of their favorite fast food chains.
Knowing can be a sign to reconsider decisions or doubling down on them. You give information to people and let them decide what they want to do with that information.
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You likely cooked at home for most of the time for over a year. You used better ingredients or had access to better ingredients. Ketchup is a good example: you can buy a better ketchup in a grocery store than you will likely find in most restaurants.
We set higher standards at home where you pay less for each meal with the same ingredients. We pay more to eat out because of time and convenience, quality of their ingredients, and because they can cook certain foods better than we do.
If you reward restaurants that order from Sysco and Gordon Food Service, you are announcing that you don't care about what they serve you. Ideally, those companies would still serve their customers (restaurants) but with improved quality food demanded by the customers of the customers.
Most Americans won't care. Do you?
photos credit: me
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