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
It’s really rough to try to run a restaurant business. On one hand there’s the health angle, but on the other hand there’s the liability angle. If he had made healthy mayonnaise from scratch, which actually would have been easier and cheaper for him, he would have run the risk of really bad press if someone had gotten salmonella from raw eggs. The FDA makes such a big deal about homemade mayonnaise the same way they make such a big deal about raw milk.
That’s probably why he just went ahead and got storebought mayonnaise, which somehow claims it is pasteurized, so not raw eggs. Is someone who has made homemade mayonnaise for years, I have absolutely no idea how store-bought mayonnaise is able to pasteurize their eggs and still make mayonnaise with them. Anyway, it’s a liability issue. When you’re running a restaurant, it’s almost impossible to ignore these sorts of things.
And for what it’s worth, they do scare you that if you eat mayonnaise with raw eggs you could accidentally miscarry your unborn child. I had to stop eating homemade mayonnaise entirely when I was pregnant, because the doctor scared me so much about that. On one hand, I figured they were just pain dramatic, on the other hand you don’t want to take that risk….
I’d say sell out and not to go back but write or call about your thoughts so that changes may be made. I think the majority of individuals are just lazy and don’t want to bother and take the time to educate themselves. I’ve been there.
This mayo thing has made me sooooo frustrated! Where has the real mayo gone? Those of us with thyroid disease should not eat soy. It keeps our thyroid from working right. I already take my own salad dressing with me where ever I go because all of the commercial ones have soybean oil. I can’t take my own mayo because it has to be refrigerated. Frustrating! So now I order all my sandwiches without dressing. Makes me sad…
This discussion is fascinating. I use mayo in the home about two times a year (deviled eggs) and on each occasion I buy the smallest jar of Hellman’s I can find, and use less than half of that. Since Hellman’s has been the taste standard for mayo in my family since I was knee high to my Dad, it is one product I hadn’t truly investigated the label on, or thought about. It has just been automatic for me to buy it. Next time, I won’t; I’ll go for the home-made. I’ll do a test run first, of course, since I’ve never made it before.
The restaurant would have an extra hoop to jump through, if they went with raw eggs to make the mayo. But then again, any number of sushi restaurants go through the same hoops with their raw fish.
I’m thinking, if you are a frequent enough patron there, just get into a casual chat about the mayo and other things they may be buying rather than creating from scratch. Some semi-processed products aren’t bad at all, others are. Find out what you could or could not eat, based on your food philosophy. And it sounds to me like this may be one of the far-better restaurants close to you; patronizing them after discussion will let them know you care to influence the restaurant industry to do better, especially since you won’t be choosing items to eat you consider compromised.
Hi Sarah,
I love this discussion!! It seems we have those who think that compromise is inevitable in this world, and those who would prefer to take the issue on, and confront the chef (you teach, you teach, you teach). Perhaps this divide separates the optimists from the (realists? pessimists?) out there. Or, perhaps it’s easier for those who are well into their real food journeys to imagine taking issue with the oil in the mayo at the restaurant than it is for those who are just getting started with theirs.
I think I am in the middle. I know a lot, and I feel confident about what I know and what I still need to learn (which is a long way from where I started – not knowing ANYTHING and not even knowing where to start with my learning), but I’m still nowhere near the point that if I have an opportunity to eat in a restaurant I worry about the what’s in the dressing or the soup. I *think* I would like to be there some day, but for now, I try to be as perfect as I can when I’m at home, and then make the best compromises I can when I’m out.
So, to me, you could mention your concerns to the chef, or not, but if you enjoy eating there with your sweetie, do go back!! Knowing what you know, though, don’t eat the mayo 🙂 There is something good for the body and soul about savouring a delicious meal (prepared by someone else) with abandon, don’t you think?! I think we must assume that nothing we can get in a restaurant will be of the quality that we would ensure at home for those we love. There’s my .02 🙂
Take good care,
Shannon
Sarah,
Think of this!!! what if the chef had made homemade mayo and used a raw yolk from the grocery store. I know–Yuck! Samonella poisoning could have been in your immediate future..like that night! If I had the contaminated mayo and got samonella I might have “serciously” died because I am immune suppressed from a kidney transplant. In that case, I think I would have chosen the “old soybean oil” or not ever eat out.. Some choices are worst. Sometimes it is not worth the stress because “stress” kills too. When you don’t eat out much, enjoy it when you do.. Just FOOD for thought.
P.S. I LOVE French food too, and go to great lengths to get it when it’s good. I’m sure it’s all that wonderful butter, cream, cheese, wonderful meats, and pate they serve. 🙂