Real Food is continuing its disappearing act from restaurants across America. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the restaurant is a franchise or boasts 5 stars.
At a franchise restaurant like Applebees, Chilis, or Bob Evans, you would expect that cheap, processed food dressed up with a gourmet presentation would reign supreme. Food in these types of restaurants is only a small improvement over fast food in most cases and will make you feel just about as rotten shortly afterward (unless, of course, you already feel so rotten from eating processed food much of the time that you don’t notice).
But a 5 star restaurant?
I recently learned that Bern’s Steakhouse, one of the premier 5 star restaurants in my metro area, uses bouillon cubes (aka MSG cubes) to improve the flavor of its signature french onion soup (source: Bern’s waiter). I was devastated! This was one of the few restaurants I thought I was safe to order soup!
Who cares if Bern’s serves organic baby green salad and grassfed steak sourced locally if you still get a migraine from the MSG laced bowl of soup? It makes you wonder what other corners are being cut that you don’t know about yet despite all the lip service being paid to high quality.
Earth to Bern’s: Bouillon cubes are NOT high quality and should NOT be in your french onion soup.
Just sayin’.
I was also disappointed recently when I enjoyed an evening out at one of my favorite restaurants, Boizao, a Brazilian style restaurant also considered very high end for my Mom’s 80th birthday bash. One of my favorite dishes at Boizao is heart of palm with a special dressing. While serving myself a second helping that evening, the restaurant manager happened by and I took the opportunity to ask if it were possible for me to get the recipe for the heart of palm dressing. He then told me that they buy the dressing from a food supplier and that it came in “big bottles” (translation: cheap, rancid vegetable oils included). I was shocked speechless. Even more amazing, the manager didn’t even seem embarrassed by telling me this!
Didn’t know you were talking to a Real Food blogger, eh buddy? Oops! Secret’s out now!
Am I wrong to expect a high end steakhouse to mix up its own dressings fresh with quality ingredients like extra virgin olive oil? Is this too much to ask anymore?
I have reluctantly come to the sad conclusion that pretty much all restaurants have gone to the dogs in America. The only exceptions I come across anymore are tiny little restaurants where the owner is also the chef and simply will not allow these low quality substitutions.
5 star or no stars, the American restaurant dining experience has been relegated to a processed food affair regardless of the size of the tab. Even if the meat and veggies are decent quality and prepared fresh, little effort is expended on the condiments, dressings, soups, and other extras that round out the meal and make a huge difference to the digestibility and overall nutrition of the experience, not to mention whether you will feel terrible the next day!
Bye Bye Maple Syrup
Another insidious trend taking place is the disappearance of real maple syrup from restaurants serving breakfast. In a related story, Food Renegade wrote about the disappearance of butter from restaurants in a recent post.
Well, the maple syrup has disappeared too I’m sorry to add! It used to be when my kids were begging for pancakes when we were traveling, I could at least ask for real butter and maple syrup to cover the bromated, bleached, synthetic vitamin enhanced white flour, garbage pancakes.
Not anymore! My husband was at a Conference recently at a 5 star resort and when the kids and I joined him for breakfast one morning, I was shocked to discover that only fake, corn syrup sweetened syrup was available with the pancakes or waffles.
You would think that $8 for a plate of pancakes that probably cost the restaurant about 25 cents to make could get you some real maple syrup! Of course, there was no butter to be found either.
Gotta pay all those property taxes for the golf course view, don’t we?
I saw the disappearance of maple syrup coming a couple of years ago when my family and I were eating at a fantastic little breakfast nook in downtown Sarasota FL. Upon asking for some maple syrup, I was informed that it would be a $3 additional charge per 1 oz bottle of maple syrup that was provided. Of course, the high fructose corn syrup sweetened ersatz maple syrup was free.
We paid extra for 3 tiny bottles of real maple syrup but I commented to my husband that it wouldn’t be long before even that option was no longer available.
Sure enough, here we are some months down the road and I haven’t been able to find maple syrup anywhere for quite some time. I realize the price of maple syrup has gone through the roof, but is that really an excuse?
For IHOP? Maybe.
For a 5 star resort or a specialty breakfast nook that prides itself on quality? Most definitely not.
Maybe I should start bringing my own maple syrup to restaurants tucked discreetly into my purse. But, then I would have to bring some butter and maybe some sea salt too.
Oh, forget it! How weird and OCD would that be? I’ll just eat at home!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hi Sarah
I was really shocked when I read about the stock cubes used at Bern’s Steakhouse here on your blog the other day. This is terrible! No professional cook would advocate using cubes instead of a proper fond for their sauces or soups. That’s just not real cooking. It’s like using ground pepper instead of freshly grinding the pepper or similar sins.
Unfortunately I don’t eat out very often, but I guess the next time I will start asking a lot of questions about their food. Only if we as consumers start being a real pain can we actually try to stop this trend.
I was pretty disappointed too! For a restaurant with such a stellar reputation, it is a huge compromise to use bouillon cubes.
I am new to your blog. A friend sent me a link about your different vaccination posts. I recently opened a cupcake bakery in Jonesborough, TN. All of our cupcakes are made with real ingredients!! I am glad to see that their is a following. It is not important to the people out here but once they try our cupcakes, they are hooked. They all LOVE butter now. Thanks!!
Real food is disappearing at an alarming rate. FYI: boullion cubes also contain GMO corn, soy, canola and cottonseed. The contamination of our food supply is so obvious. Why can’t the masses see it?!
Just a note to everyone: I have recently discovered copycat recipes online for a lot of our favorite restaurant salad dressings/seasonings. If you can locate a favorite of yours, just substitute better ingredients and make it healthier at home 🙂 My latest post is the copycat version of Outback steakhouse seasoning and Tiger Dill sauce- YUM.
I’m new to your blog and I love it. You go girl! Keep shoutin’ it out.
Thanks Lylah . welcome to a blog for THINKING people! 🙂
A voice from Europe: no fun in eating out in this part of the world anymore either. I have to eat in restaurants quite often and finding something real on the menu can be uphill work. I usually end up ordering a pan-fried steak or a piece of fish with vegetables or a side salad. But I can never be bothered with their dressings – they all contain vinegar which I don’t like. I just order a salad with salt an olive oil. Italian restaurants are a pretty safe bet here. If they don’t even have olive oil available to their I skip the veges and just have some meat. Not a pleasurable experience but sometimes there simply is no other choice. Generally though, all of the above applies to European restaurants more and more. I usually try to walk past the kitchen air vent – you can smell it if they use cheap stuff.
We buy a gallon of maple syrup from the farmer’s market once a year and it usually lasts us. We freeze it so it doesn’t get that wierd (but ok) brown film on it.
We have a condo for skiing and usually divy up the shopping list for food for our week long stay. I put ‘real maple syrup’ on the shopping list and the moron who had that section of the list bought the fake stuff! At least we had real butter….
I think Cracker Barrel may still offer maple syrup for their pancakes…
HI Mardee, it is a mix of 45% maple syrup and 55% cane syrup labeled “natural maple syrup”. This change was recently made.
And to think, the first lady, as well intentioned as she may be in her attempts to address childhood obesity, is just as misguided as most everyone else and is leading the pack in trying to get restaurants to eschew butter for margarine:
)
NO BUTTER OR CREAM IN RESTAURANTS EITHER
“Just because you’re not an athlete or a child doesn’t mean that you’re not a target of the food police. First Lady Michelle Obama is prodding restaurants to remove butter and cream from their dishes, use lowfat milk and provide apple slices or carrots as a default side dish on the kids’ menu (news.yahoo. com, September 13, 2010). Nothing wrong with the apple slices or carrots, but in this case the vegetables are serving as a shill for vegetable oil products, which will replace butter and cream when chefs remove them. And where, oh where are the voices urging removal of industrial fats and oils from restaurant meals? The food industry coined the term “solid fats” to refer to both trans and saturated fats, but when it comes to demonization, only healthy fats like butter and cream get the blame.”
How about this? LET’S START A NEW CAMPAIGN:
“BUTTER IS BETTER – EAT REAL FOOD”
Meanwhile, you can check the restaurant listings by state on the EatWild.com website, which requires grass-fed/pastured to be listed on the menu in order to be listed. You need to ask about the oils and condiments, though. If we ALL ask, repeatedly, maybe some places will take note. If they can afford to, that is. Consumer demand can be pretty motivating, but I just don’t know how it stacks up against misinformed nutrition brainwashing combined with cost cutting and the ease of microwavable, chemicalized, denatured food. Still, what choice do we have? We all have to eat out at some point or another, so let’s speak up.
Nice expose by all on the state of restaurant food in the U.S. the unrefined, destroyed
palates of Americans is heartwrenching. Perhaps we can start an “eat at home” movement?
I now carry a small container of real EVOO and an organic lemon in my purse if we must eat out…. I order a plain salad and make my own dressing, usually ordering a piece of fish (praying it is truly wild) or meat and some veggies which I also add lemon to…
http://www.celticseasalt.com website has a great twist top wooden salt box which can be tucked into your purse and carried with you… I give them as gifts. We also pack and ship real Vermont maple syrup to FL where we spend the winter.. This also makes a nice gift …
Food is not sacred to Americans. For all of you who are aware of ancient wisdom and nutrient dense foods, keep sharing your knowledge !