catering and bbq

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brdprey

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jul 8, 2009
292
10
westvalley city, utah
more of an observation, I'm looking to understand something.

one of our suppliers was having a BBQ roasted pig this weekend, so we took the family.

good amount of people, decent spread. but....we get there and they were pulling the pork (np, love pulled pork)

that is when my son asked, where was the smoker or the pit? i didnt know.

so we got some bird and some of the pork.

took a bite of the chicken, tasteless crap

took a bit of the pork, no smoke, tasteless,

and for the sauce if it got any sweeter my teeth would have had to move out.

the beans were so sweet my kids whom love baked beans wouldn't eat it.

so do people not care, do they not taste what they are selling? this food wasn't

worth the time it took to go to the event. my wife made the comment we should be

cooking for these. told her no, leave it to the professionals. now Ive been cooking in high end

restaurants for 16yrs and so far not impressed with some of these vendors.

my best friends kid was with us, he looked at me and commented why is yours so much better, i told em

cause i read the forums and ask questions i guess, i dont know. the owner noticed we didnt eat our food and

copped an atittude but instead of replying and commenting i just told the family to go to the car ill deal with him.

all i said to him as i turned was we werent hungry. while i walked i could hear all kinds of crap from his pie hole

about what was good food.

im not calling out the person and im not calling out his company. but this just makes no sense how people

who cant cook continue to be in buisness.
 
" There is no accounting for Taste "...Is what comes to mind. I have been to and Judged, Rib Cook-offs where the Peoples Choice winner was a local Chain Restaurant that Steams then Grills their Ribs!...Never even seeing Smoke 'cause even the Grill is Propane! Lots of folks including some Famous TV Chefs Roast/Braise hunks of Pork Butt, even applying a homemade rub and sauce and Swear there is no better Pulled Pork to be had anywhere in the USA...Go Figure!...
th_dunno-1%5B1%5D.gif
...JJ
 
Ya, it is one thing to ask you if there was an issue with the food in a polite way and you would have most likely been polite and said something nice to him. To attack you is why so many entrepreneurs fail in business. 

We were at a restaurant with my parents - both in their 80's and my dads steak was so tough he could not cut it with a steak knife. We called it to the waiters attention and next thing you know the owner was at out table accusing my dad of eating part of the steak and not wanting to pay for the meal. He ended up closing - the restaurant had been there for 35 years before he bought it

Sorry you had to experience that  
 
When we cater, we ALWAYS sample what we're providing to our customers and I am constantly worrying about whether they'll like it, even though we've never heard a complaint in four years!  I think people get what they pay for too!  These people serving bad food are probably also the cheapest the customers could come up with.  I will say we've lost almost as many catering gigs due to price as we have actually cooked but I refuse to lower my standards of product to compete with the lazy caterers.
 
A lot of places don't want to spend the time needed to aquire true low & slow BBQ. There was a new cart that opened in our area that advertised BBQ brisket, pork, ect. - figured I would give it a try. The meat was mushy and the flavor tasted off - after talking to the very proud owner I found out he had a pressure smoker that he paid $10,000 for. So basically it was steamed meat with liquid smoke added to, and he prided himself in that he could do pulled pork in about 2 hrs.
PDT_Armataz_01_32.gif


I politely thanked him for the lunch, wished him luck, and have never stopped there again.
 
As someone who works in catering it kills me to read about companies that are like this. In most cases you get what you pay for. For the most part as a Chef we have 2 main areas to effect the bottom line for profit, food cost and labor cost. Yes you have equipment and building over head, but they are usually a fairly fixed cost in the profit formula. So when you have caterers that are selling their services at a higher price, they should be using a better product and putting more time and love to equal a higher quality product. Then you will have the client that wants a full feast on a dollar menu budget. So you are caught in a pickle as a bussiness owner. I totally agree with BigCreek in I would rather lose some business to keep a high standard. But there are "Shoe Makers" out their that don't have a clue what "passion for food" is and they probably have never had someone be truly open and honest with them about their product. Society as a whole has lost the art of giving and receiving honest feedback. This company will probably go under and the owner will have no clue why.

My sister had a pig roast for her wedding reception. When the caterer showed up they had whole pigs and were going to pull/carve them in the back. I told them either they did it in front of the guest as agreed on, or I would and I would send them a bill. I am not cheap labor!!!!

I am sorry you had to experience someone like that in my field of work. People like that make me sick.

Sorry for the rant.........
 
You guys all make valid points...I would bet this guy does taste his food and is completely convinced it is Awesome! He may not even be using inferior quality product. There are just a lot of these clowns out there and although they may never get rich they seem to find enough people who don't know any better to keep them in business. The flip side is the stories of Great Grand Champion Pitmasters from the South coming to Northern states, opening businesses with Award winning Rubs, using Top Quality local raised Hogs and smoking them Low and Slow on Custom made Pits...Then failing because the Sauces and Pulled Pork is " Not Sweet Enough " and all the Locals don't like it! One of the busiest restaurants in York PA gets $30 for their best selling Fried Fisherman Platter...and...IT'S ALL FROZEN PRE-BREADED SEAFOOD FROM SYSCO! I don't know if I will ever understand people...JJ
 
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What is good food ????? will y'all cook up your own batch of "good food" and overnight it to me.... I will judge it, only as "good" and "bad"... and post my results... :biggrin:
 
Originally Posted by brdprey  

im not calling out the person and im not calling out his company. but this just makes no sense how people

who cant cook continue to be in buisness.
I know this thread is about a catering business but there are plenty of eateries out there that should never have made it based on the quality of their cooking or cuisine. McDonalds is a prime example of this....their food is just awful yet people continue to eat there. In general though most places that don't provide a good product don't stay open for very long.

One thing that I've noticed being a northern transplant living in the south (I suppose that makes me a damn yankee....lol) is that the food selection down here is pretty slim....if it isn't a chain, mexican, chinese or BBQ people will not eat there. I'd love to have an Indian, Russian or German restaurant here but people just won't try anything new. My sister-in-law and nephew are a prime example of this. They continue to eat the same things meal after meal with very little verity thrown in there. It drives my brother nuts.
 
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I was wondering the same thing while at a friends wedding this past weekend.  They had BBQ catered.  The brisket was cooked in an oven and had no noticeable smoke flavor.  The sides were the typical sysco stuff in a bucket.  I was in awe as all of the BBQ was being eaten, but then it came to me.  People were not there for the food...well perhaps wedding cake....everyone loves wedding cake.  So I think everyone was just hungry by this point and did not care what they were eating.  It makes me sad everytime someone eats BBQ that is cooked in an oven.
 
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