Somehow this has been in the news recently but it’s been happening for a long, long time. There are some foods I just kinda dread and don’t order because they’re the same everywhere. If they’re the same everywhere, it’s because they’re little more than frozen bags and boxes shipped in from Sysco, and I can make the same thing at home.
If you like unique local eats that aren't chains and have regional specialties I recommend Roadfood website and book. It was started by two food critics who loved roadtrips and hated chains so they wanted to find authentic local places: https://roadfood.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050133-roadfood
Tons of made from scratch, non-Sysco eats on there!
Sysco reminds me of how airplane, hospital and hotel lobby restaurant food tastes.
Maybe you’ll hate me for this but when I hear food described as “authentic” I assume that the place is touristy! Something about the word “authentic” stands out like a red flag in restaurant reviews, warning me away.
I like places with negative reviews. The right people have to hate it in order for me to like it.
Heh.. I get your point! What I meant by authentic is more regional local faire, house-made. For example they recommended this place called Als in Barberton, Ohio that specializes in Barberton chicken which was one of the most amazing meals of my life. Totally worth visiting if you are driving through Ohio:
> The chicken recipe and the meal itself were brought to the New World from Serbia when the Topalsky family immigrated to the farmland of Ohio at the beginning of the 20th century. After they opened Belgrade Gardens, three more restaurants in town began serving the same chicken dinner, which is now Barberton’s claim to culinary fame. Barberton chicken aside, there is one other essential stop in town: Al’s Corner Restaurant. A modest storefront that serves only lunch, Monday through Friday, Al’s is affiliated with Al’s Quality Market just down the street, which is where its sausages are made. The sausages are divine, as is everything else on an Hungarian-accented menu that includes chicken paprikash, halushka, stuffed cabbage, and pierogies.
But literally everywhere I've tried that's been recommended in that book has beem a gem, I check it before every road trip to see what's nearby my planned route.
It depends on who's saying “authentic”; if it's a legit chef, food critic or expert in that type of cuisine, versus someone just trying to pump reviews and scores e.g. on Yelp.
The term “authentic” can be misused, just like “homemade” and many others...
When I see a Sysco truck delivering to a restaurant I tend to start avoiding it
Not necessarily the best idea. Often they are the only dry bulk(flour, etc.) or paper/plastic distributor that a restaurant can access. See if they also get deliveries from others before jumping to such conclusion.
Restaurants hate Sysco just like you do. They deliver late, get it wrong every time and argue about rejection when half their delivery is destroyed goods.
I could see that in many places, but I tend to live in the largest urban areas. I see lots of local distributors around.
I've worked at Michelin starred restaurants in major cities that ordered paper products as well as commodity items from Sysco. Like I said, it isn't a particularly good metric.
I think unfortunately this is a massive conflux of many negative rentseeking factors that creates a blackhole of mediocrity.
A lot of local restaurants in Seattle can't afford space rent, but then when they leave those spaces stay empty. The restaurants that do thrive are part of big multinational chains or have to serve the same slop as everywhere else because it's the cheapest. Combined with increasing consolidation, everything converges towards low quality shit.
Fixing this would require, like a lot of our self-inflicted problems, realizing that big corporations and consolidation is slowly strangling everything.
Or more density in urban areas! Then rent will go down