How to know if a restaurant actually cooks their own food? (ingredients, burgers)

[Jill_Schramm]

I have a highly restricted diet — due to chronic pancreatitis, I try to eat as low-fat as humanly possible. This makes my choices at restaurants quite limited. Sometimes (like the past two weeks) even plain grilled chicken breast is too fatty for me. At an airport seafood restaurant recently, I resorted to shrimp cocktail (plain shrimp is very low fat) plain steamed rice and a green salad with no dressing. Why bother eating out, right?

However, a couple of nights ago in Tampa FL, I had a pleasant surprise at a restaurant. I told them about my restrictions and the server said she would consult with their chef. She came back and indicated that they could make most of the items on the menu for me leaving out the fatty ingredients and without added fat, oil, butter etc. So, instead of something really basic, I had squid ink pasta with fennel, peppers and garlic in some kind of delicious tomato based broth while my husband had grilled scallops. My dish was wonderful and my husband said the scallops were great. With tip, the bill came to $70. Quite reasonable!

My question is: Is there any way to know ahead of time whether or not a restaurant actually has a chef and cooks things from scratch (and so has the flexibility to customize orders)? I mean —- is there way to know without actually calling each restaurant ahead of time and asking?

[old_cold]

Many,many restaurants have web sites. You might get the information there or at least a hint.

[Robinwomb]

I'm less restrictive now as a pescetarian but when I was vegan for a number of years I always called ahead AND checked any available restaurant website. I learned over the years that there are a lot of hidden ingredients that aren't mentioned on the menu or website. Bread may have honey or lard in it for example, and stir fried vegetables may have fish sauce/oil, and I learned that a lot of authentic eastern Indian style restaurants cook all their rice in ghee but this might not be advertised anywhere. I had to ask once when I went to that style of restaurant and they had to make a special batch for me. I only learned ahead from an "insider" who used to work there.

I generally only eat out about 5-6x per year at most, and at least one or two of those times is in a hospital cafeteria where the salad bar is available lol and I know what I am getting. Restaurant food does tend to have more fat added to food to make it palatable to the masses. Low fat would be tough when eating out. I think if you have severe allergies or health issues it's just going to be one of those hassles you have to live with to call ahead and research before eating somewhere. I'm VERY allergic to beets but thankfully it's not in a lot of stuff.

[KemBro71]

It's surprising that an airport seafood restaurant doesn't cook from scratch?

[Brave New World]

Chains are more likely to sell pre-made warmed up food than local family businesses, however there are some other signs, and of course guides and reciews are also useful.

Signs you're eating pre-made food at a restaurant - Mashed

The French actually brought in a law in 2014 and a new logo in the shape of a saucepan displayed on the window of a restaurant, that can only be displayed by establishments that cook their own home made food using fresh ingredients. The French idea is actually a good one and perhaps more countries should adopt similar schemes.

Originally Posted by BBC

Now any restaurant that serves a home-made dish can indicate it on the menu with a new logo - in the shape of a saucepan with a roof-like lid. From next January it will be compulsory for all menus to carry the logo - so if you don't see it, the food is not fait maison.

"We chose to represent 'home-made' with a logo so that foreign tourists could understand it," says a government spokeswoman.

The new sign on French menus - BBC News

Will France's 'fait maison' law save its culinary reputation? | The Guardian

[Jill_Schramm]

OK, so it looks like just keep on doing what I have been doing — checking websites and calling ahead. Too bad we don’t have a law here like the French one. It would make things easier when strolling in a restaurant district.

I too rarely eat out. But I do sometimes to give my husband and friends a break. On vacations we always get a suite or cottage with a kitchen and I cook simple things from scratch.

The airport restaurant example was meant to show what I usually wind up eating at restaurants in general not to complain that there wasn’t a scratch kitchen in an airport.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

the expensive restaurants are most likely to have a chef who does the cooking on the spot. Chains and economy family restaurants are most likely to be using prepared meals.


Only the extremely expensive restaurants will have a pastry chef. Everyone else will be buying their desserts.


However, you do get "cooked to order" in a breakfast grill sort of place. Those are usually less expensive, but you can't get low fat. Everything is cooked on the grill: eggs, pancakes, burgers. Their soup and chili is probably from a can.


I think that calling ahead is going to be your only option.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Robinwomb

I'm less restrictive now as a pescetarian but when I was vegan for a number of years I always called ahead AND checked any available restaurant website. I learned over the years that there are a lot of hidden ingredients that aren't mentioned on the menu or website. Bread may have honey or lard in it for example, and stir fried vegetables may have fish sauce/oil, and I learned that a lot of authentic eastern Indian style restaurants cook all their rice in ghee but this might not be advertised anywhere. I had to ask once when I went to that style of restaurant and they had to make a special batch for me. I only learned ahead from an "insider" who used to work there.

I have worked in small local chains, institutional kitchens and a variety of restaurants.

The chain produced ALL of their soups, chili, sauces, and salad dressings locally IN A COMMISSARY and delivered to the restaurant locations several times a week. Doing do created the highest level of consistency and made it very easy to address any customer's questions. (Preparing soups, chilis, stews, and sauces in the individual restaurants introduces a great deal of variability in the product as few people ever follow a recipe as it is written.)

I worked in many hospital kitchens and with proper notice of a couple hours, we could prepare a very low fat meal as we were always preparing low-fat meals for our patient population. Also, everyone on staff was very well educated as to all of the various regimens required.

As for independent restaurant, I find them to be the most difficult to get specially prepared food. First, many of the places are not required to provide nutritional data and have no real inclination to do so. Second, many chefs do NOT have a clue as to what is required for particular diets much less their staff. Third, some chefs view special diets as an affront to their cooking style. Fortunately, the latter chefs are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

[Gerania]

Farm-to-table, high end, and chef owned, operated restaurants have someone in the back who knows how to cook.

[vision33r]

If you have a life threatening illness you actually trust your life on restaurant's being honest with their ingredients? I don't even trust 90% of food labels of groceries in the supermarket.