As the chef, owner and buyer for our small Italian Trattoria, I meet with sales people and inspect all the food I order. This hands on approach helps control the quality of the product we produce. “Fresh foods cooked to order” has always been our motto. With the trend towards “Real Foods” becoming more popular and people looking for more value for their dollar, I wanted to let the customer know what makes the food at Fazio’s special. The popularity of chain style Italian restaurants has grown. Let’s face it, they are inexpensive so you can feed the whole family and it tastes good. So why would you pay more? The educated palette will insist on fresh produce, fish, meats, as well as freshly prepared soups, sauces and foods cooked to order.

Fresh foods prepared to order have a greater value to the consumer  because you are getting more nutrition for your dollar and not just empty calories from the processed foods that these large chain restaurants use. Just like the a fast food cheeseburger, they are cheap, taste great, but twenty minutes later your body crashes. I am not talking about some fad food trend, it’s an old-fashion common sense approach to food: “fresh food cooked to order”. At Fazio’s our bread and pasta is produced daily on premise using the finest raw ingredients. Our produce is always fresh, as well as the meats, poultry, and fish. Salad dressings, soups and desserts are all made in house. Very simply, we buy fresh foods and  prepare them in house and cook them to order. Primal cuts of meat, whole fish, fresh locally grown shellfish, local produce in season are our mainstay.

The truth is, it is hard to tell (even if you are at a fine dining establishment) if the food, like mashed potatoes, is freshly cooked or comes frozen in ready-serve bags. When food is precooked and frozen like this it is stripped of its fiber and some of its vitamins when it is processed and preservatives are used. Somewhere along the line the foodservice salesman has convinced the chef that he can save money on labor, and this is just this tip of the iceberg. This is when it all start to go down hill. Convenience over quality. Prepackaged grilled chicken, loaded with nitrates- dead food. You know how delicious freshly grilled chicken and meats are with their natural juices flowing. Why would you pay for precooked chemically altered chicken on a salad? Escoffier would turn over in his grave. Frozen alfredo sauce, frozen meatballs, precooked pizza shells, vacuum packed soups, bottled salad dressings, precut salads soaked in preservatives. This is not “fresh food cooked to order” it is something else entirely.

Be knowledgeable when you dine, spend your hard earned money wisely, be kind to your body and “eat well”.

Chef Tomasso

Tags: real food

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