The Restaurant Experience

 I have been traveling with a manager from a large corporation this week.. and one of the things that come with that is restaurants (although I got through the week pretty well by just skipping meals, pre-eating before the business day would begin and even bringing my own food items to snack on (and as expected got strange looks and “no thanks” when offering to share). Anyway, last night I broke down when she said she wanted to buy me dinner at this fancy-schmantzy seafood restaurant in Boston (figured I should be able to find something fresh, real and un-messed with).

 As it turns out there was something promising .. she ordered the Cajun Grilled Lobster Tail with Filet Minion topped with pecans. How could you go wrong? So I followed her lead.. .. .. weell-ell.. here’s the deal .. Starting with the lobster tail.. it was alright. But for a $36.98 entree that DID NOT include salad (what’s up with that?) it was not all-right, not all-wrong but definitely not alright. So, what was the problem? It wasn’t fresh, simple as that. And you know by the fact that it wasn’t juicy but on the dry side and not really tough but not really tender. If I could find someone to bet with here’s what I would wager. The lobster tails are pre-cooked and stored in a freezer. The chef takes them out, hits them in the microwave and tosses them on the grill really quick. Why do they do this?.. Because they have to.

 The simple fact is that the restaurant business is the restaurant business. They are there to push out the food in the most efficient/cost effective way possible. That is minimize labor, get a lot of food out per hour and don’t let the food spoil even if quality is at stake.

 This isn’t arrogance but I bet that I, or you, or for that matter the restaurant chef who prepared my meal could easily prepare a lobster tail that was twice as good. I mean come’on, you just need to freshly cook the lobster right then, separate the tail, then while warm and juicy hit it on a very hot grill for a second (to grill the outside while not toughening up and drying out the inside), bush with some butter/seasoning and you’re done. And we could do it because we put some love which causes caring into the cooking.

 If you care about your cooking and place the time and attention to it you’ll beat the restaurants every time. And the money you save can be invested into superior organic ingredients as well. I really think that the only reason the restaurants by and large stay in business is that most people eat poor quality conventional food and by comparison the restaurant is unbelievably good. … So the lesson here my friends is that once you take to the organic cooking path you can’t turn back. You’ve been ruined so to speak and what you may have found delicious in the past no longer tastes good.. By the way regarding the filet, serious as a heart attack here, my hamburgers prepared at home taste better by a mile. And that’s what I’m talking about.