My sweetie took me out for Valentine’s lunch to my favorite restaurant, L’ Eden, an authentic French cafe in beautiful downtown Tampa. The cafe sits on the corner of Tampa and Madison Streets and if one is lucky enough to score a corner table, the urban view and setting is ever so slightly reminiscent of a cafe in Paris where I once dined on omelets overlooking the Seine and Notre Dame Cathedral.
Ok, I said slightly!
I love L’Eden and I’ve eaten there for years. Have I ever told you how much I love French food? If not, you probably guessed it already given the amount of time I spend on this blog lauding the wonders of butter and cream!
The owner of L’Eden is also a French Chef who plans the menu and prepares the food himself. I’ve quizzed him on a couple of occasions about his Food Philosophy (oh yes, there is such a thing!), and he appears careful and thoughtful about the food he serves his customers. He is not one to go for cheap food substitutions to boost profits. He is sincere and earnest in the practice of his craft.
Knowing all this, you can imagine my shock and surprise when I saw Mr. Awesome French Chef himself pull up to the curb in front of the restaurant yesterday while I was enjoying an amazing crock of mushroom and brie soup (made with REAL beef stock) and unload his fresh food for the day’s cooking activities.
Mixed in amidst all the several boxes of fresh produce, was, GASP, 2 huge jars of Hellmann’s mayonnaise!
In case you’re wondering what all the fuss about Hellmann’s mayonnaise is about (it’s supposedly American’s favorite brand of mayo), let me post the ingredients here:
Hellmann’s Real Mayo (yes, they actually call it “Real”, are they kidding?)
INGREDIENTS: SOYBEAN OIL, WATER, WHOLE EGGS AND EGG YOLKS, VINEGAR, SALT, SUGAR, LEMON JUICE, NATURAL FLAVORS, CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (USED TO PROTECT QUALITY).
Soybean oil? Natural flavors? Calcium Disodium EDTA?
I almost cried in my soup. How could any French Chef worth his salt buy mayonnaise made with soybean oil? Soybean oil is a cheap, rancid vegetable oil that should never be ingested for any reason at any time. Even if not partially hydrogenated, soybean oil is almost assuredly GM as well as interesterified, which is arguably a method of processing edible oils that is even worse for cardiovascular health than transfats.
Natural flavors is another big one to avoid when perusing food labels to ascertain quality. The translation of “Natural Flavors” on a label is this:
“We don’t want you to know what’s really in this, so we’re just going to call it Natural Flavors and hope you gloss over it.”
On to calcium disodium EDTA .. what is this stuff anyway? It is basically a preservative that prevents spoilage from oxidation of the food molecules. Calcium disodium EDTA is an organic pollutant which breaks down in the environment into ethylenediamine triacetic acid and then diketopiperazine. Diketopiperazine is a persistent organic pollutant, similar to PCBs and DDT.
Hellmann’s Mayo: Compromise or Sell Out?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Sources:
Environmental Engineering Science, May/June 2006
Interesterification, February 2008
Hi Sarah – I wanted to read all these nice responses (the ones I read were great), but unfortunately I don’t have time today. So I’ll just say that I’ve had conversations with many a restauranteer in my town (Boise, ID) and sometimes they are really looking at me like I have three heads, and once in awhile…I get a surprising response.
This review I did of Jenny’s Lunch Line
http://agriculturesociety.com/politics-and-food/local-restaurant-review-jennys-lunch-line/
a nice, independently-owned business that specializes in serving foods from local farms (and they have grass-fed meats!) is a place my husband and I eat at fairly often. When I did this review, they were using canola oil in their salad dressing. I mentioned it to one of the people working there, and the next time I went back she was very proud to tell me that she was now only using olive oil in the dressings. Later I heard from a friend that they are still using it in other foods like soups (who ever heard of putting canola oil in soup???), but at least they changed the dressing. Sometime in the near future I’m going to inquire about the canola oil again, in a diplomatic way.
I like this post not only because it helps people understand the importance of quality ingredients served at the restaurant – and the fact that many people operate on the “what I don’t know won’t hurt me” philosophy about food – out of sight, out of mind, right? attitude, but also because I wrote a post about Best Foods Mayonnaise in 2009 and I got the old wallup from the “Eggman” Dean Hughson, Chairman of the United Egg Association Further Processors Division. Get a load of his site – he’s something else:
http://www.eggman.cc/
He claimed that all the information I wrote in this post about eggs and how they are used in mayonnaise is false. Well, see for yourself:
http://agriculturesociety.com/healthy-living/is-best-foods-mayonnaise-healthier-than-it-used-to-be/
Hi Sarah! My husband and I just returned from our first trip to Paris just last night, so it’s funny that your post was about French food! Indeed the things we ate there were the absolute BEST I ever had eaten my entire life. And the food wasn’t even too complicated….just simple things made well with quality ingredients. I love the little fresh market streets where people shop daily for their needs. I was reading that the French will willingly pay more for food they know is local, fresh and in season. It was truly a beautiful scene watching the locals pick out their daily groceries as they’d catch up on news with the shop owners, etc. It was all about the relationships as well as the food. I was in heaven over there and would love to spend more time experiencing that pace of life!!
Oh Sarah, I can’t wait to hear what the chef says! His French Onion Soup is delicious and last time we was there I spent the whole time analyzing (and enjoying) my curry chicken so I could recreate it at home! Keep us posted!
get a life
I hope it works out (for you and the restaurant!). Just your recommendation would probably mean more customers for Chef Gerard…Just my thoughts 🙂
I have a great idea ! When you go back to ask him, bring some of your own homemade mayo. And maybe he’ll hire you to be the mayo maker in exchange for some free meals 🙂
I hope you let us know what he says when you do go back 🙂
Trust nature, beware of chemicals. I am planning on doing a blog post on the various chemicals found in processed food and its so disgusting what I’ve found out so far. Why is ammonium put in bread so often? I’m making it at home from now on.
I absolutely agree, Go Back. And enjoy the fresh foods that he is using. Avoid the mayo menu items if he isn’t able to change his mayo source. I would hate to see you lose out on a favorite restaurant of yours in this hard-to-find-a-good-restaurant city!!!
I’m with those who say talk to the chef. It’s only fair. Especially if you’re on the verge of never going back, and especially as you’re posting this publicly for all potential L’Eden customers to see. Maybe there’s an explanation none of us have thought of.
I agree with the go back and ask group. He may believe that no one cares. If you let him know that there are people who do care, he may go back to using actual, real mayo and think twice about substituting lesser ingredients elsewhere.
Just blindly accepting inferior food just because you are eating out does a disservice to everyone trying to eat healthy and will perpetuate this appalling trend. We need to let restaurants know what we want to pay for.
Wasn’t so many years ago that there was no vegetarian food on restaurant menus until those misguided souls kept asking and pushing. How would this be different?
Love your blog! You are a beacon of light in my kitchen.