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There have been a number of threads running here that discuss eateries in New Mexico. I've yet to see mention of a little-known fact concerning a great majority of restaurants in communities around the state.
I don't know how widely used the commercial food services are in more remote parts, but in most of the larger towns/cities restaurants get daily deliveries of their menu items - everything from the entrees to desserts - from the large food service companies operating primarily from Albuquerque. One of the largest and most widely used is this one:
Sysco also has a distribution center in Lubbock that probably serves the eastern communities in NM.
I notice food service food especially when I order my favorite meal in Tex/NMex restaurants because I choose the chile relleno plate normally. And there is little or no variation from one place to another in the quality of the stuffed chile. Presentation is about all that varies.
Eating out and realizing you're eating a "frozen dinner" that has been nuked is something we all would like to think isn't the norm - but unfortunately it is more often than you might think. Ask any "chef" who will answer honestly and they'll tell you that there are different levels of "quality" provided by the food service companies - and of course higher quality means higher cost to the "chef," which gets passed on to the customer.
I'm not sure how this would be considered a "New Mexico" topic, as the food service distribution model you mention, for better or for worse, is really a nationwide norm.
Yup, sadly, we all eat Sysco, at least in part if you eat at a variety of restaurants. Most restaurants, to be fair, don't cull their entire menu from Sysco, but use it to fill in gaps in their menu.
For example, if you order a burger or fish fillet at a Mexican restaurant, it is probably Sysco food.
The tortillas in your enchilada may be Albuquerque Tortilla company, but the shredded cheese may be Sysco.
The chile in your chile relleno may be Hatch, but the batter it is dipped in may well be Sysco.
Sysco does have its competitors, Shamrock and Ben E. King, but is is still a case of three major corporations (probably under the umbrella of a mega-corp) feeding you.
Over my years as a restaurant owner I did literally millions of dollars of business with Sysco, but that doesn't mean I was nuking pre-made meals. I bought equipment from them, produce, meat, and many of the ingredients necessary for scratch cooking. They service everyone from fine, high end restaurants to school lunch programs, so it's no surprise that you can buy some fairly disgusting pre-made stuff. I'm sure a lot of chile rellenos served in local restaurants are NOT made on site, but are made in big food factories, frozen, and recooked when you order it.
I've known several gourmet chefs who operated restaurants where I live and it's different in each case, whether or not they prepare from scratch or use already pre-packaged food service goods. Their largest problem is obtaining any kind of quality produce at the grocery stores in this small town.
I would think that if a restaurant consistently purchases their advertised menu items from the "menu" of a food service company that it would eliminate the inconsistency found in restaurants where the kitchen help comes and goes and the food quality depends on their abilities.
I started this thread simply to bring to the fore the information for those who hadn't thought much about it.
I've known several gourmet chefs who operated restaurants where I live and it's different in each case, whether or not they prepare from scratch or use already pre-packaged food service goods. Their largest problem is obtaining any kind of quality produce at the grocery stores in this small town.
I would think that if a restaurant consistently purchases their advertised menu items from the "menu" of a food service company that it would eliminate the inconsistency found in restaurants where the kitchen help comes and goes and the food quality depends on their abilities.
I started this thread simply to bring to the fore the information for those who hadn't thought much about it.
You're very right, jaxart, about both the difficulty of sourcing good produce in a relatively small or remote town and also the appeal of standardized food items for both consistency and labor cost saving reasons. Every chef makes choices, and even compromises, dependent on their own judgement of what is acceptable in their particular circumstance.
I'd have items in my cooler that were easy and convenient for a lunch service that I wouldn't consider using at dinner service. In some cases I'd find a convenient or premade product that I honestly felt was as good as the equivalent I could make, so the choice was obvious. The time and money saved was best spent elsewhere.
Even a huge corporation like Sysco sources locally and regionally, so sometimes I'd be buying Michigan asparagus from them instead of the farmer down the road because their product was as good or better, or because the individual farmer couldn't or wouldn't meet a quality standard I had set.
The general public doesn't really have a sense of how much food served in restaurants came in the back door already prepared and ready to sell. Good quality food service products are always better than carelessly or poorly made housemade, both for cost and quality, and there's plenty of fairly poor chow being served in LC at any given moment.
The French fries at Dick's (the hamburger place) are house cut, but poorly prepared and they're terrible...limp and greasy. They'd be better off buying a superior processed product.
I'm not too sure that the big food suppliers have hit this place yet. They have their own bbq smoker out back, the brisket and pork pull sandwiches are pretty dan g good. It's in hatch.
They have their own bbq smoker out back, the brisket and pork pull sandwiches are pretty dan g good. It's in hatch.
Thanks for mentioning the BBQ restaurants. You know they are "doing it from scratch" if they are BBQing on the premises. Of course that doesn't mean they aren't buying the meats from a food supply company.
Speaking of which, I often wonder just how often un-inspected meat is sold to markets and restaurants in small towns, especially here in NM where it's readily available "on the hoof." Regulation and enforcement of FDA rules being what they are, I'd be willing to bet there is a lot of "black marketing" in meats. Just a guess, of course.
Very little is available to restaurants that is fresh-picked / slaughterd in NM. If it frozen it's better for health and safety concerns. And there are more options to, say, beef like Kobe vs Angus. Frozen does not mean "Stouffer's dinner served here."
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New Mexico Restaurants
