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BenR
Regular Member


200 Posts
Posted -  28/01/2010  :  16:02
It's our belief that 90% of the food sold in British pubs and restaurants is now pre-prepared in a factory, delivered chilled or frozen then microwaved and finished under the grill. This explains why the menus are so predictable and the vegetables always come in the same white porcelain dish. 

Have a look at the websites of Brakes Group, 3663, Premier Foods, 3G, there are plenty of them. These are the white refrigerated trucks you see trogging around in the mornings delivering to the pubs and restaurants. 

Many pubs advertise "Home Cooked Food" but I wonder if this actually means Home Microwaved? Apart from asking the staff or going somewhere expensive, how can we be sure we're not being palmed off with industrial food? I object to the practice and I wish there was a way we could  support restauranteurs who really do make the effort  to go and buy fresh local produce, rather than inflating the profits of some Megacorp.

What do others think?

 


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tripps
Senior Member


1404 Posts
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 16:29
Ben, you are absolutely right. The warning sign is an impossibly  long menu.  Best chance of fresh food is to go for the Daily Special,  or go to France. (Or stay at home and try one of Stanleys fascinating recipesSmile   )


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 17:11
You've sussed them out Ben. That's why I keep out of restaurants. I used to think the fish, peas and chips was relatively safe but no, the components can be bought ready cooked and combined.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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BenR
Regular Member


200 Posts
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 17:31
All you need is some bloke in chequered trousers nipping through the bar from time to time and people will believe you employ a chef! 


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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 28/01/2010 : 20:18
Quite common now I should think. Have a look at this company and see if you recognise any meals. I saw a notice about them saying: "Free weekly delivery to on trade, hotels and restaurants in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. Now opening in the North West, Preston, Chorley and districts." They do claim to be at the top end of the market.

I gave up on pub meals some time ago because my gut can no longer tolerate spices and just about every pubmeal has black pepper, chilli or paprika in it. It came to a head when fish & chips started to have chilli in the fish batter. Take notice - you'd be surprised at some of the foods that now have chilli in them.

Besides the sourcing of the food there is also a `sameness' about pub meals because the pub owners tend to follow the same trends and fashions as each other.

Edited by - Tizer on 28/01/2010 20:19:29


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 29/01/2010 : 05:28
No 'sameness' in this kitchen!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Sue
Senior Member


4201 Posts
Posted - 29/01/2010 : 13:19
 I know you are right about the food souce because i know an ex salesman for one of these companies, and he told me who he delivered to which was quite a shock. However once in a while isn't a problem to me .Its nice to go out for meal, and nice to be able to take my Dad out. So long as you are not LIVINg on the food all the time.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 30/01/2010 : 06:47
See my comments about the ready-made food people buying old sheep because lamb is too high a price in 'What did we have for tea'.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 30/01/2010 : 11:37
Not all the white vans visiting pubs are carrying ready-made meals - the people who cook their own still have to get supplies of raw materials and it can't always be from the farmer next door.

It's easy to jump to conclusions about what might be in vans or lorries visiting places. In our local paper there's a story this week about a public outcry over the big Robert Wiseman dairy company in Bridgwater taking in foreign milk when they claim to supply only British milk. People gave as evidence the fact that big, white, anonymous, articulated lorries were seen at the company's depot. Fortunately the reporter spoke to the company's MD and he confirmed that every litre of milk they sell is British. The lorries are not delivering anything - they are collecting cream for export. This is because we British have been foolish enough to give up on cream and full-fat milk products and Wiseman's alone have to get rid of 90 million litres a year of cream skimmed off milk by selling to countries that know better and love to have it from us.The French eat much more milk fat as whole milk and cream than the British do, yet French men and women have much lower rates of heart disease than the British.

Edited by - Tizer on 30/01/2010 11:48:00


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 31/01/2010 : 07:16
Peter just one more example of the food fascists peddling inaccurate information for their own ends. The people who gain from this are the food processors who take the cheapest ingredients that fit their manufacturing model and spend vast amounts on PR. Shelf-life and profit are more important to them than the health of their customers. FIGHT BACK! Eat natural fats and foods while watching intake and exercise levels. Besides, what tastes nicer or is more satisfying then good saturated fat? God thinks so, he put cholesterol in mother's milk and eggs not modified vegetable oils!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Tizer
VIP Member


5150 Posts
Posted - 31/01/2010 : 10:52
Stanley, I'm hoping to get you a free copy of a book on food & nutrition on the promise that you'll mention it on here. It's written by a scientist but for public consumption. I'll let you know when it's published.


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 01/02/2010 : 07:52
Sounds good and if it's any good of course I'll mention it. I try to read everything I can on food and nutrition. What a conemnation of our system that we have no official organisation seriously promoting good nutrition. Leaves the field open to the polemicists financed by the food industry. That's why we have so much disinformation, bad description and downright fiddling on food labels.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Bruff
Regular Member


479 Posts
Posted - 03/02/2010 : 13:58
Unless you buy the very cheapest ingredients, have it prepared elsewhere taking advantage of economies and shipped in to be 'cooked' by folk with absolutely the minimum training, there is no way you can serve food as cheaply as loads and loads of places do or offer the range some places do.

 
On price there is a reason why some restaurants and pubs etc charge the prices they do, which folk might think extortionate because they can get nominally the same cheaper elsewhere.  It's because it's top quality materials, freshly prepared and served by extremely well-trained, skilled and therefore expensive, staff.

 
I once read an article by Raymond Blanc, where he deconstructed a dish on his menu which he priced at £38 (and this was a while ago) - I think it was a fish main course.  When you see the price he pays for the best fish, the time and effort that goes into the preparation of each aspect and other ingredients that brings the dish together, and overheads, then his need to make a profit, you see why it's that much.

 
I saw another chef on tele who runs a pub in Berkshire.  He won't have chicken on the menu - serves rabbit instead.  This is because he knows that for what he'd have to charge for the chicken he'd serve, cooked by the people he'd employ, in the style he wants, many, many folk in this country wouldn't pay for it.  Too expensive, poor value, folk mutter.

 
Said folk would rather have 'chicken in a white wine sauce', mass-produced in a warehouse, using the cheapest chicken imaginable, popped in a microwave by a person with Level 1 Food Hygiene, in vast quantities, all for £5.95.

 
Now I'm not saying that we should all eat at places like Blanc's, and pay top whack (but I've eaten at his place twice, along with many others, and enjoyed it thoroughly, everyone should try it, money well spent).  But if we insist that a steak is a sirloin or better, the fish is cod (loin, filleted), the pork the fillet, the lamb the leg steak and the chicken the breast (skin off), and that working in a restaurant/pub is something students etc do as opposed to a 'trade' worthy of good training in its own right, then the prices charged in many places can only reflect the 'cheapness' of the whole operation.

 
Sadly for too many people, quantity and price determine quality and value.  It's not as simple as that, but that does dictate the choices we have when eating out and caterers know this.


Richard Broughton


Edited by - Bruff on 03/02/2010 2:03:21 PM


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 04/02/2010 : 07:44
Richard, you are quite right but there is a simple solution. People have to get over the idea that they 'haven't got time to cook' because that's the way to getting the best food cheap. I buy the best ingredients from sources I trust and cook for myself.

Like many other meats, 'cheap chicken' has been a scandal for years and I wouldn't touch it with your barge pole! If anyone wants the low down go and look at 'Waste not Want not', the article I did for the Food Magazine.  It's a good publication, prints the truth and has no advertising or commercial connections. That's why it so expensive. Same as the cheap meals syndrome really. I'll bet Raymond Blanc rates it! You gets what you pay for.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Bruff
Regular Member


479 Posts
Posted - 04/02/2010 : 13:39
Another thing that gets me is portion sizes when you go to a lot of places.  They are simply huge, far too much.

 
I subscribe to the maxim that enough is as good as a feast, and can't understand why folk seem to thing you have to be uncomfortably full to have had a good time - I see it at places serving a carvery, folk waddling up to refill 2 or 3 times, or piling a plate high with masses and masses of food.  Mad.

 
I've never understood folk who say they haven't got time to cook, same as folk who say they haven't got time to read a book or time for 'anything'.  Time is a unique resource in that we all have an equal amount at any one time in our lives no matter who we are or where we come from.  Anyone who says they 'haven't got time' for anything is making excuses.  What they really mean is that they aren't really interested in something, or that it's a lower priority for them.

 
Richard Broughton



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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 04/02/2010 : 16:54
Agreed all round. I was once informed that "the 32 ounce steaks are off" in the Blue Horse sallon at Millersburg in Minnesota. It did not spoil my meal.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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