dining

Fresh produce from the Westfield Farmers Market

Recently I received an email from a customer. He was very upset with his recent trip to my restaurant. I own a small restaurant called Sapore in Westfield. His complaint was not about the waiter, the atmosphere, the quality of the food. He was upset that our food was too... “flavorful”. I had to read it twice. Did he really say that our food was too flavorful? I called to my wife, “come over here and look at this, read this email”. She confirmed, too flavorful. I wasn't sure what to do with this information. Can something be too flavorful? Can you be too healthy, too happy? Can the colors painted across the evening sky be too beautiful? Too much in debt, too arthritic, too salty these things I can understand. Too flavorful? Then I started to think what has this unfortunate man come to expect? 

I have long since come to accept that the days of the neighborhood butcher, the baker, and the artisan food producer are waning. These small aficionados of good taste are being swallowed up by corporations that have a fiduciary responsibility to profit, not to please your pallet.  Drive through any suburb or small city and all you will see is chain restaurant after chain restaurant. They all have basically the same menu; some of the food is even not too bad. They have spent millions of dollars developing recipes that are meant not to be extraordinary but rather inoffensive. They have large commissaries where they precook and package everything that ends up on your plate.  The smaller restaurants that can't afford their own commissaries have mega vendors like Sysco or Curtze who do it for them, usually not very well. They have developed systems that encourage what I like to call quo; “cooking by numbers”. Much like the paint by numbers you did as a child, these chains plug in people with no real passion or understanding of food.  They simply have them put item number one with item number two to create food with no flavor, no character and no originality. Frozen, canned and freeze dried have replaced fresh, handmade and innovative.

Unacceptable right? Completely outrageous! We have progressed from the days of the Neanderthal; we don't eat simply for survival. Spices are not just for nobility and the very rich, they are accessible to everyone. What are these corporations trying to do to us? Meet me at the corner with your fork and knife in hand and let's drive them all out of town.

These corporate restaurants have their place, they offer consistency, familiarity and sometimes safety. In my travels I have been relieved many times to find those golden arches and know that the kitchen will be clean and the food vaguely edible. I have been on the road for hours with a hungry, grumpy wife and daughter and on the horizon the neon Olive Gar. .. okay let’s be honest when I saw that sign I just kept driving, but you get what I am trying to say. Sometimes you just need to eat to survive and for those times find your favorite chain. When you really want to experience food, seek out the off the beaten path restaurant, farm stand, or independent food producer. Passion and pride of craftsmanship taste much better than profit first. On your journey you may encounter foods that are too “flavorful” or not to your liking, but keep trying. The real joy in eating is experiencing new things, transporting yourself just for a moment to a distant place and sharing it with those you love.

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