Just saw the Disney food warehouse on Dinner Impossible!

[Tiger926]

I'm pretty sure this show aired a few months ago, but I missed it. Chef Irvine was at Epcot, and had to make a dinner based on princess foods for 250 volunteers that Disney was honoring.

It was great because it showed the Epcot kitchens and the food warehouse. What struck me, was the amount of "fresh" food that came in boxes and cans: corn, okra, peppers, artichokes, etc.

It was surreal to see the massive amount of shelves filled with boxes and boxes of food...

I come from an Italian restaurant family, and there are hardly any boxes of food there. Fresh food is exactly that...it's washed and cut up. I realize that Disney is serving thousands upon thousands of guests per hour, but it really struck me, just how much of their food is packaged, frozen, bagged or canned. The chefs had to cut open packages and open cans, so you could really see how Disney stores the food that we all eat.

Anyone else see this episode? What do you think about the amounts of packaged foods that Disney uses?

Tiger

 

[Micca]

Haven't seen that episode but will look for it in the future, thanks for the heads-up.

Not sure what to think about the canned ingredients. Of course fresh is better, but how do you deal with that on such a large scale? I don't know that there's any place on the planet that feeds that many people such a diverse menu on a daily basis

OTOH, Walt Disney famously said "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

 

[DonaldTDuck]

I've been a professional cook for 30 years and can tell you very few restaurants have 'fresh' food. I saw this episode and recognized many of the foods I saw.But that is just the base of the food. It's what the chef does after opening the can that makes the dish.
I worked for the most popular chain of family restaurants for 22 years. In that time I saw meatloaf go from being made in store to coming in a tube like ground beef at Kroger. Same thing for veggie soup. We went from making scratch gravy to putting milk in a steamer and adding a rouex. In a tube again. the greens were frozen and the green beans canned. Can't be done any other way today. I now work in a hospital with 125 patients and a kitchen staff of 6. That's for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week plus snacks, stocking floor galleys, and taking care of the needs in the employee lounge. We had the same sized staff 6 years ago for 72 patients. Some things like meatloaf and roasts are fresh, but many others are packaged. With the time constraints nothing else can be done.

 

[Tiger926]

I've been a professional cook for 30 years and can tell you very few restaurants have 'fresh' food. I saw this episode and recognized many of the foods I saw.But that is just the base of the food. It's what the chef does after opening the can that makes the dish.
I worked for the most popular chain of family restaurants for 22 years. In that time I saw meatloaf go from being made in store to coming in a tube like ground beef at Kroger. Same thing for veggie soup. We went from making scratch gravy to putting milk in a steamer and adding a rouex. In a tube again. the greens were frozen and the green beans canned. Can't be done any other way today. I now work in a hospital with 125 patients and a kitchen staff of 6. That's for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week plus snacks, stocking floor galleys, and taking care of the needs in the employee lounge. We had the same sized staff 6 years ago for 72 patients. Some things like meatloaf and roasts are fresh, but many others are packaged. With the time constraints nothing else can be done.

Around here, it's the opposite. I come from a very ethnic and multicultural city, and our restaurants are very good. Lots of fresh ingredients used.

You mention family chain restaurants, and hospitals, and they use tons of prepackaged foods because of consistency and time constraints. My family makes all of their food with fresh ingredients, and they make things like sauces and dough in the main restaurant, and bring them to the other restaurants to ensure consistency. No boxes or cans needed! Sure they don't serve millions of people, but in the small restaurant business, fresh is the name of the game. They also don't charge $50.00 for a steak or $22.00 for a plate of spaghetti, yet the sauce is homemade, using 5 different kinds of tomatoes, fresh cheese and spices. A totally different world than Disney, so it was very unsettling to me to see so many boxes and cans of foods on the program.

I was just surprised that Disney wouldn't use more fresh ingredients, especially with fruits and veggies.

Thanks for your input, Tiger