Welcome to the Machine!

Every night on my way home from work I pass a small family-owned Italian restaurant that just happens to be next door to a Carrabba’s. As you can probably guess, their parking lot is basically empty while the Carrabba’s lot is full. This just pisses me off; actually it makes me sad. Here’s a mom & pop establishment run by hard working people who make REAL Italian food from scratch, while the corporate monster next door churns out industrialized food product for the sheep who have been lured in by tantalizing television commercials, billboards, and other forms of print media. The folks in corporate restaurants are hard-working people too; it’s just that they are now part of the machine, and in the immortal words of Pink Floyd, 

"Welcome to the Machine!”

The most important factor for any restaurant is consistency. Restaurants want their food to taste the same way every time someone dines there. Anyone who has worked in a kitchen knows the importance of following a recipe. Corporate restaurants take this to a new level. Not only do they want the food to taste the same for every diner, they want it to taste the same at every location. This is what helps them build their brand. In order to do that, they need a formula to create this consistency. Part of that formula consists of buying in ridiculously large bulk, which often compromises the quality of the food. In addition to buying in bulk, certain food distributors can “process” the food to a restaurant’s specific requirements. This can range from the chopping of vegetables which are then sealed in a plastic bag to par-cooking meats, to entirely prepared dishes that only require being heated up in the microwave. All of this processing strips the food of many of its nutrients, taking something that was once health and making it into a shadow of its former self.

For clarification sake, I don’t know for sure that Carrabba’s uses these procedures it’s just an example of what many restaurants do. With consistency being the main motivator, the processing of food for the big chains also helps to cut costs from payroll to workers compensation. More ways they stick it to the help.

Smaller establishments seem to be more focused these days on the sourcing of their food. It’s a bit of a broad generalization, because not all places do, but those that do make it well known. Wineries have been giving props to their farmers for a long time; it’s great to see restaurants doing the same. The expansion on local farms and CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture) is really beginning to blossom in the restaurant community. My restaurant brothers and sisters are stoked with this because we all enjoy using good ingredients in our art.

I enjoy eating real food that’s not over-processed and still contains most of its nutrients. Just because something looks healthy, tastes good, and fills you up for a reasonable price doesn’t mean it’s good for you. I choose not to support corporate restaurants because I choose to eat healthy food. Plus, I like to support my local economy by supporting businesses owned by local people. Keep the money in the neighborhood. After having spent the better part of a decade in the restaurant biz, I really want to hang with the brave folks who decided to take a huge leap of faith and open their own place. It’s quite the undertaking. Eat local, fuck the corporates!

Ciao down,

Penn