restaurant tomatoes

Minnesota Mato · January 26, 2012

I work for a major restaurant chain and dice or slice 25-50# of tomatoes every day. I am always amazed at how crappy the tomatoes are. They are always way under ripe, hard and juiceless. Then there is the list on the box what has been strayed on them and I think why do people even eat these things. It is a shame what corporations will do to save money and ship inferior products. I often think of the tomatoes coming out of my own garden and wish I could run a greenhouse here and supply the restaurants with fresh, ripe, non-sprayed tomatoes. Today I took a picture of the tomatoes we got in, these are subpose to be normal red tomatoes not specialty tomatoes of any other color. this is just sad!! craig

Worth1 · January 26, 2012

No wonder many people dont like tomatoes.

Worth

panhandler · January 26, 2012

I hear you. Those things probably bounce like a rubber ball too.

jhp · January 26, 2012

Question, do you wash them before your slicing and dicing? I often suspect product is not washed by the restaurants. Just wondering.

BigBrownDogHouse · January 26, 2012

There's just something really wrong with that picture. Those are very sad tomatoes.

sgray13 · January 26, 2012

I have to wonder why the person acting in the garde manger capacity accepts produce like this. Does the person accept cracked eggs as well? Or bags broken open? Same thing. You can't make quality food with inferior ingredients. One doesn't need an epiphany to understand this. Unfortunately though, it happens all the time.

Boutique Tomatoes · January 27, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgray13

I have to wonder why the person acting in the garde manger capacity accepts produce like this. Does the person accept cracked eggs as well? Or bags broken open? Same thing. You can't make quality food with inferior ingredients. One doesn't need an epiphany to understand this. Unfortunately though, it happens all the time.

In most places that that have a good chef they would, I sent back a lot of product and bounced between multiple vendors until they figured out they couldn't send junk to the places I worked. Having a seafood vendor just start loading the boxes back on the truck when I came out to the loading dock and and started pulling each fish out of the ice to inspect it was not uncommon, they know they're trying to pass off substandard product because they got stuck with it.

(No different than telling the servers they need to move the #@%$! fish on Sunday because it's not going to be good by Monday ;-))

Unfortunately most restaurants either don't have the manpower to inspect everything or storage space to keep enough on hand to go a day without basic products.

I read somewhere a quote something like this from a large tomato farmer. "I get paid by the pound, not by taste."

travis · January 26, 2012

Craig, those look perfect for fried green tomatoes. What did your restaurant use them for?

feldon30 · January 27, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by travis

Craig, those look perfect for fried green tomatoes. What did your restaurant use them for?

A temporary replacement for the broken foot of the buffet table.

coloken · January 27, 2012

A couple of questions,
Why can't the restaurant order like a week ahead and let them get even a little bit pink?
And aren't green tomatoes poisonous when raw?

Like some one said, many don't even know what a good tomato tastes like.

travis · January 27, 2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by coloken

A couple of questions,
Why can't the restaurant order like a week ahead and let them get even a little bit pink?
And aren't green tomatoes poisonous when raw?

Like some one said, many don't even know what a good tomato tastes like.

Restaurants can obtain tomatoes that are riper than the ones shown in the OP, or they can allow the greener ones to ripen before use. It's a matter of good vs. poor kitchen managment.

Tomatoes are not poisonous at the breaker stage as shown in the OP.

True, most consumers never have or never will obtain tomatoes with anything near the flavor of an honest to God, homegrown, fully ripe, old fashion tomato.

dustdevil · January 27, 2012

Every once in a while a few miss being dunked in a vat of red dye #2...quit dulling your knife...use a masonry saw instead

dustyrivergarden · January 31, 2012

I am just glad I don't Have to eat one of those things...

livinonfaith · February 1, 2012

Problem is, by the time they get to an acceptable level of red, most greenhouse tomatoes are mealy, and they still taste like cardboard.

I have had a few friends that couldn't stand tomatoes, but liked spaghetti sauce. I suspected they had just never had a good home grown tomato, but I could only get two to even try them. One of them now eats tomatoes. The other is my best friend. She still can't stand them.

(But she loves peppers)

January 26, 2012	#5
BigBrownDogHouse Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Northern Illinois ZONE 5a...wait now 5b Posts: 906	There's just something really wrong with that picture. Those are very sad tomatoes. __________________ Brian

January 31, 2012	#13
dustyrivergarden Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Holbrook, Az zone 5 Posts: 157	I am just glad I don't Have to eat one of those things... __________________ “The yield of a crop is LIMITED by the deficiency of any one element even though all of the other necessary elements are present in adequate amounts”. J. Von Liebig's law of the minimum.

January 26, 2012	#2
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	No wonder many people dont like tomatoes. Worth

January 26, 2012	#3
panhandler Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Northwest Florida Posts: 49	I hear you. Those things probably bounce like a rubber ball too.

January 26, 2012	#4
jhp Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Danbury, CT Posts: 492	Question, do you wash them before your slicing and dicing? I often suspect product is not washed by the restaurants. Just wondering.

January 26, 2012	#6
sgray13 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Nashua, NH Posts: 6	I have to wonder why the person acting in the garde manger capacity accepts produce like this. Does the person accept cracked eggs as well? Or bags broken open? Same thing. You can't make quality food with inferior ingredients. One doesn't need an epiphany to understand this. Unfortunately though, it happens all the time.

January 26, 2012	#8
travis Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Evansville, IN Posts: 2,984	Craig, those look perfect for fried green tomatoes. What did your restaurant use them for?

January 27, 2012	#10
coloken Tomatovillian™ Honoree Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: NE Co Posts: 303	A couple of questions, Why can't the restaurant order like a week ahead and let them get even a little bit pink? And aren't green tomatoes poisonous when raw? Like some one said, many don't even know what a good tomato tastes like.

January 27, 2012	#12
dustdevil Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: WI, USA Zone4 Posts: 1,887	Every once in a while a few miss being dunked in a vat of red dye #2...quit dulling your knife...use a masonry saw instead

February 1, 2012	#14
livinonfaith Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina Posts: 1,332	Problem is, by the time they get to an acceptable level of red, most greenhouse tomatoes are mealy, and they still taste like cardboard. I have had a few friends that couldn't stand tomatoes, but liked spaghetti sauce. I suspected they had just never had a good home grown tomato, but I could only get two to even try them. One of them now eats tomatoes. The other is my best friend. She still can't stand them. (But she loves peppers)