How much Sysco do you eat?

[torgo]

Chain restaurants (like Cheddars, Olive Garden, Applebees, etc etc) all have this same, bland, frozen food taste to all their dishes. I much prefer local restaurants.

[YellerDog]

Preparation > Supplier, IMO.

[Rtificial]

Sysco is food distribution mainly. There are other people that do the same thing as Sysco. Sysco even have Sam's wholesale type stores but not as wide scale as Sam's. If you're saying Sysco is putting stuff in all your food, you're freaking paranoid. They sell their brand stuff, which can be made to your specs (certain cut steaks in weight, certain vegis cut how you want). They also sell other brands and distribute them for their companies. If you're really large scale you can have your spec food and have it branded as such with special packaging. For example the company starwood (owns hotels W, Westin, Grand Regis, Sheraton) They get various food items labeled at "starwood" since its their spec and how they want it like "starwood bacon".

Think of sysco as a record distributor. Does Caroline music own, make EVERY cd you buy in the stores? No they probably helped get em to your local cd store though.

Alot of restaurants use either sysco or US foods, I see them alot and I've been in the food industry for around 6+ years. I could tell you all sorts of dirty secrets about major chains/franchises. For example, cheesecake factory...they don't make their own cheesecakes at each restaurant. They have a place setup in California(last I checked) and they distribute their style cheesecakes to all of cheesecake factory restaurants around the US.

[Shooting Love]

There's a huge Sysco distribution warehouse like 5 minutes from where I grew up. An old friend's dad was a sales rep for them, I'm so jaded about restaurants after hearing some of his stories.
Rtificial described it right on, but the thing I hate is the homogenization of many supposedely home cookin style restaurants around here. I haven't gotten a good plate of Chicken Marsala in years. Its the same sauce and exact same canned or frozen mushrooms at 5 different mom & pop style Italian restaurants. Some plates cost $8, some cost $20 but its the exact same mushrooms and sauce every time - like they came out of a replicator. The $20 plate would have real chicken breasts, as opposed to the all white meat mechanically separated formed breast patty on the $8 plate.
Pizza places all get their ingredients from these place too. I've been told, and then noticed first hand, where a pizza shop will open with kick-ass pizza and get a good reputation, then like 6 months or a year later they downgrade to a lower quality cheese and ingredients. People still think like "Oh Jo Jo's has the best pizza", but its like "No, didn't you notice that the cheese is all oily now and the dough doesn't cook all the way through and is raw underneath the sauce?" The pizza is shit and tastes no different than the 20 other independently owned shops in town.

[Rhydant]

For example, cheesecake factory...they don't make their own cheesecakes at each restaurant. They have a place setup in California(last I checked) and they distribute their style cheesecakes to all of cheesecake factory restaurants around the US.

I don't see this case in particular as a bad thing. It's fucking cheesecake. And damned good cheesecake, at that. Besides, Cheesecake Factory has like 45 different types of cakes (nearly all of the delicious). Do you expect each restaurant to be able to make 45 different kinds of cake on a daily basis? Thats a hell of a lot of work just for some goddamn cake. Its dessert. It can be frozen and defrosted without harm. AND its all made in the same place by the same people. Whats to bitch about?

Also: Oreo cheesecake ftw imo.

[Hubbitron]

Pizza places all get their ingredients from these place too. I've been told, and then noticed first hand, where a pizza shop will open with kick-ass pizza and get a good reputation, then like 6 months or a year later they downgrade to a lower quality cheese and ingredients. People still think like "Oh Jo Jo's has the best pizza", but its like "No, didn't you notice that the cheese is all oily now and the dough doesn't cook all the way through and is raw underneath the sauce?" The pizza is shit and tastes no different than the 20 other independently owned shops in town.

Truth. Luckily we avoided such a tragedy because the owner refuses to sacrifice quality for money. We actually get most of our italian stuff from a distributor named Impero. It's cool because the driver looks exactly like Fidel Castro but he's really a nice guy.

[JBNagis]

The only Cisco i know of is the bottle of fruit flavored death in a bottle that will get you drunk in have a bottle.


JBNagis

[Hubbitron]

That can only mean one thing:





BUM DRUNK

[JBNagis]

Thats it right there. Many a people have died cus some crazy gangbanger was drunk off Cisco and Kool aid. Yes. Thugs put Kool Aid in Cisco. dont know why. all i know the last time i saw someone drink he had maybe 5 sips and was super drunk. he was 16.


JBNagis

[sleeve]

As Hubbitron says, most restaurants get at least something from Sysco. A lot of restaurants and mid-range chains purchase things like canned fruits and vegetables, and frozen meat. That kind of thing, I have no problem with, even though I prefer to patronize places that support local agriculture.

It's places like Chili's, Applebee's, and Olive Garden that bug me. They purchase entire frozen dishes from Sysco, reheat them, and then serve them as their own. If you eat at one of these major chains, there's an excellent chance your favorite tequila-battered buffalo chicken mozzarella blue cheese sandwich began its life in a flash-frozen bag in a Sysco warehouse, thousands of miles away from your plate.