@dear.arabella: i wrote an essay about this while i was in culinary school, have we forgotten what Bourdain said?! In Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain exposes how much of the restaurant industry relies on pre-made and industrially sourced ingredients rather than from-scratch cooking. Describing the early-morning routine in a professional kitchen, he lists “boil-in-the-bag veggie burgers, pre-cooked bacon slices, greasy meat patties, and all the other crap that fills the walk-in before we can even start real prep,” illustrating how even seemingly artisanal kitchens depend on mass-produced items delivered from food-service distributors (Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential, ch. “A Day in the Life,” p. 77). Later, he recounts a cook injuring himself while trying to hack “frozen demi-glace out of a bucket,” a vivid example of how fine-dining establishments often lean on commercial bases and sauces for efficiency and consistency (ibid.). Together these scenes reveal the industry’s quiet dependence on the same large suppliers, companies like Sysco, that stock countless restaurant kitchens across the country.

Arabella🔪

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Thursday 09 October 2025 11:31:45 GMT