EPISODE 2; FOOD SERVIVE DISTRIBUTORS

Episode 2 of a six part series on where is the smoking gun in the food service industry problems that operators face today. We are not blaming them for the problems that exist, I am simply shaking my head in disgust at some of their answers to the issues.

Local Eats are the Best Eats!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Well, good afternoon. It's May the 22nd, 2026, and straight from the High The Caffeinated Studio, this is the Mad Food Critic, and this is episode number two of the podcast. Now, I have decided after giving it some more thought because I want to make sure, 100% absolute sure, that I do not leave anything unturned or unsaid. And here's what I mean. There's going to be six episodes in this particular series. The first one that we did two weeks ago, because I apologize, I missed last week for having pneumonia. So it's been a long nine weeks, but I've got my voice back and I've got a lot to say. So we did we looked at the food manufacturer because we're trying to find out who's holding the smoking gun in the food service industry that's causing the issues that we're having in today's industry standards. Who's holding the smoking gun? Is it one person? Is it one group of people? Is it where where does the blame lie? Or is there more than one particular possible outcome? I think there is. So we're going to divide this into six episodes. The first one, like I said, we did, we looked at food manufacturers and how they get their information on how they need to go about trying to fix issues in the industry, aka labor issues, food cost issues, etc. Today we're going to look at food service distributors. Then, episode three, we're going to look at the food service sales rep. Then we're going to look at restaurant owners, and then we're going to look at restaurant patrons, and we're going to take a summary, if you will, of all five of those episodes. And we're going to see where the issue truly lies, and who's either not listening, or who's not fixing the problem, or who is causing more harm than good. So hopefully, by the time we get to the episode six and we uncover everything, we're going to have some answers. Some real heart of the matter meat and potatoes answers. And if we don't, we'll at least have raised enough questions that should make people start thinking about having some answers. I'll give you my background again because this is a new podcast. I've been in the food service industry for over 40 years. I've done every job category in the food service industry that you could possibly fathom or think of. From the growing side to owning restaurants, designing restaurants, you name it. I've been in all of it. It does not by any means make me an expert. This is one industry that you could literally be in your entire life and still learn something new every single day. So with that, today let's see what we can learn. Food service distributors. Now, there are a lot of different companies out there, some regional, some local, some national, some worldwide. Because number one, I don't want to call anybody out. And number two, I don't want to inadvertently give somebody a pat on the back because that's not what we're here for. That's not the exercise behind the mad food critic. I'm doing this podcast. I do the mad food critic because I care about the industry. It gave me a lot of years of good life, and I'm I made good money being in the food service industry. So this is my way of trying to help fix some issues that nobody wants to admit that they're there most of the time. That's the that's what I the re I'll say this. So I kind of had the sneaky suspicion, if you will, that a lot of the issues in the food service industry wasn't that we didn't know about them. Nobody was willing to stand up and say, hey, that's not how we should be doing that. That's not the way we should go about fixing that. Guess what? I don't care. I'll say it, I'll say what needs to be said, and yes, I get flack. Yes, I'm getting my inbox is incredibly full, and I'm getting everything from praise to a beatdown, and it's okay. You know, I I mean it it you're not gonna hurt my feelings. I want to hear if you got something to say, and you know, it doesn't agree or align with what I said, that's okay. That's what makes this world great, is that we can disagree with one another and move on. So if you have a disagreement, you know what? I want to hear it. Maybe it will enlighten me to something that I didn't know. So if you got an opinion, an innuendo, or a suggestion, or just a rant, fine, send it. I'll be waiting on it. Be sitting right here, right in front of the keyboard. Click, click, click. All right, let's talk about food service distributors. What role does the food service distributor play in the problems facing the food service industry? Well, first of all, let's talk about the problems again so we don't forget what they are. We got labor shortages, high turnover, high prices on menus, high food costs, waste. I mean, there's a you could write a whole book on all the issues that face the restaurant industry. It's what makes it such a volatile industry, but it's also what makes it rewarding. Because when you get it all right, it's very lucrative. And it's it's a can provide a very good financial bank statement for you and your family. So we know that the restaurant owner faces these problems on a daily basis, and they talk to their food service sales rep, which in turn trickles down or trickles up, if you will. And I told you we're we're doing this backwards because there's a reason. I've got a method to the madness. So it gets to the food service distributor that hey, uh, this restaurant owner is having trouble with labor. Hey, this and with the labor, and here's here's what this causes, just so you follow me along. If you've not been in the restaurant industry, why does it matter? Well, for one, it could cause longer wait times. The patron has to wait longer for their food. But the part that I'm wanting to attack, the parting that I'm the part that I want to get out into the open, is when a restaurant is short on labor, they look for ways to cut corners. Now, I don't mean that in a bad way. They're trying to figure out hey, I've got three people back there in the kitchen to run my lunch service. I would normally have six. Today I've got three. How can I turn out the same quality of food and the same amount of food as I do with six people? Hmm. Sounds like a problem, doesn't it? Every one of these categories that we're going to look at has a different way of addressing that solution. The problem is, and this is problem number one, the problem is there's a lot of people in the food service distribute distributorships that whether they're upper management, middle management, whatever the case may be, district manager, doesn't matter. They've never been in the restaurant industry. Now, what happened there when I said that statement? I want to tell you what happened. I could hear it in my headphones. I just ripped off a band-aid off the hairiest leg you could imagine because a lot of people just had a knee-jerk reaction to what I said. Some people take offense that, hey, it is 100%, and I promise you, I promise you, I will stand to this statement. If you have not owned a restaurant, I don't mean manage one, I mean owned it. Your sweat, blood, and tears, and family inheritance are built into that restaurant, you do not fully understand the wholehearted consequences of daily operations. You might understand how a restaurant operates, but you do not understand the heartbeat of it. And I guarantee you, every restaurant owner that hears this podcast is gonna say he's 100% right. Because if you haven't been on the firing line, you don't understand. You have an understanding of what's going on, not of how it's going on. So just go ahead and jerk that band-aid off now. And if I made somebody upset, I'm I'm not sorry. I'm trying to get this fixed, and it's the only way we're going to do it. So, this is what problem number one is because you've got people trying to come up with solutions that don't fully understand how the problem exists. Remember what I told you in episode number one. We talked about a pre-breaded chicken fried steak or country fried steak, whatever you want to call it. But understand this going to a pre-breaded or pre-cooked product or a pre-whatever is not the answer to saving the labor because you created another problem by trying to solve one. So is this the fault of the food service distributor? No, it's not, and that's the thing. You have the problem, but nobody's addressing the issue. They're just putting a band-aid on. Well, okay, if we uh need something that he's only got three people in the kitchen, and they need to be able to just go to the freezer and grab uh they get an order for six chicken fried steaks. He needs to, this person needs to be able to, the line cook just walk to the freezer and grab six chicken fried steaks and throw them in the fryer and boom, throw on some instant gravy and some instant mashed potatoes and throw it out to the patron, and the patron is just going to absolutely love it. Guess what? I hope you can hear me, but you're wrong. That's not how you do it. There are so many restaurants out there today that are getting it right, that are not taking those shortcuts. And they're they're not getting the pre-made hamburger patty, they're not getting the pre-breaded this, they're not getting the the pre-cooked this or that. That's not how they're cutting corners. They're figuring out other ways. Now, has the food service industry done something good? Yes, they have. Would you like to know what it is? I've got to tell you. One of the smartest things I've seen food service distributors do is this right here. If you've got three people in the kitchen to run your lunch service, I'll put it this way. If I'm running your kitchen, and I've got three people that showed up to run that lunch service today, where do I want to cut time? I want to cut time off of prep that is going to greatly affect my service for those patrons. Now, what is what am I talking about? Pre-sredded lettuce, pre-diced tomatoes, because it's still fresh, it's still fresh produce. And and and with the technology that there is today, I've seen some amazing advances in fresh cut produce. Do you know how long it takes to cut up, clean and cut up a case of lettuce or a case of tomatoes? Takes a long time. And yes, one of their one of their little uh, you know, uh what do you call the uh uh FABs, they call them, features, advantages, and benefits of pre-cut is that you're taking the knife out of that person's hand. So you've got that person back there in the kitchen. If they're in a hurry and they're trying to cut up a case of tomatoes real quick, guess what's gonna happen? More than likely you're gonna cut your finger. Or worse. And now you've got compounded problems. So one of the smartest things that food service distributors done was said, hey, they went to the they went to their produce companies, their co-ops, and said, hey, we we need to save these restaurant owners some time. They're still getting the same exact tomato, they're still getting the same lettuce, they're still getting the same onion, but they took the hours that it takes to cut, wash, cut, and prep those vegetables. Now, that's smart. Focus on that. That was a good thing. That's what I tell you. I'm trying to tell you is that there it's not all bad, okay? But we've got to stop with the pre-breaded and the pre-made and the pre-stamped and the pre-this. Patrons, just because they eat it, they line up at the drive-throughs of national fast food places every day. But if you ask them, how was your lunch? and they're like, uh, I had to eat it uh XYZ drive-thru today. So yeah, my stomach's not happy. Just because they eat it, just because they show up for it, doesn't mean that they like it. Trust me. What I tell you, if you ask a patron, hey, how was how was that chicken fried steak? It was fine. Fine? Fine? No, no, I'm not good with fine. I I can tell you some of the some restaurants uh off the top of my head that are getting it right that that bread and and do things from the hard way, do those things from scratch. And you know what? It's an amazing experience to go eat there. There are places that that I know of that are just absolutely die hard phenomenal. When you go in there and eat, it is it is an experience, and you cannot wait to go back again. But you think I'm gonna have that same thought process for something pre-stamped or pre-done from a machine? No. But I'm not gonna notice the pre-sredded lettuce or the pre-sliced onions. That's not gonna take away from my meal experience. So there's ways to go about this. I'm wondering if at times that we should be more, let's call it intuitive when we speak to our food service distributors. And they ask us questions like, hey, Mr. Restaurant owner, what issues are you facing today? Well, my food cost. All right, well, we have a um distributor brand that can save you money. Uh now we've got different tier levels. I'm telling you, I I I literally just want to tap my forehead on the wall when I think of the tier levels of the quality levels. We'll call it tier levels, call it what it is. It's quality levels. You know, they got five different levels, uh, quality levels of green beans. They all have the distributor name on them. One can you get two pounds of green beans and eight quarts of juice, and then the type top uh quality, you get four pounds of green beans and one quart of juice. And the green beans actually look like they were probably picked this year and not from some kind of zombie apocalypse or something. I don't know. But I promise you, you can see the difference, you can taste the difference. We eat with our eyes. Think about that. It's maddening when I think of the different games being played in the food service industry when it comes from the distributorships. It drives me up the wall. If I go into a restaurant and my meal is gonna cost me anything over $10, and you have on your table a food service distributor ketchup, I literally just want to run out the door screaming. That's you know, you you want to charge me $15 for a hamburger, but you you want to give me that red slatherable crap. Oh, and I had I had somebody comment on my TikTok when I talked about the whole ketchup thing. Well, uh, you gotta understand that that you know the XYZ packer is the one that does most of that, and they're the same one that pack, I don't hear that. I don't care who packs it. Because you can argue with me all day long if you want to. I'm fine with that, but I'm gonna go ahead and tell you if you blindfold me or 99% of the rest of this free world, and you put some fries on a plate, and you put Heinz ketchup on one side, and you put that red slatherable crap that you call ketchup on the other side, I guarantee you most of us are going to be able to blindly pick out which one is Heinz. They're the ketchup people. That's what they do. They do ketchup. You're a food service distributor, distribute food. Now, like I said, there are innovations that have occurred in the food service industry that have been very helpful with labor, food cost, etc. But there's also the other side, and that's the side that we want to highlight. Me wrong here. We want to highlight both sides because we it's not this is this show is not about just tearing down what somebody is doing wrong, it's also about lifting up what somebody is doing right. Because the only way we're going to have any kind of significance behind this podcast, behind the thought process of trying to fix the issues that are truly facing restaurant owners today is to look at everything that's being done the good, the bad, and the ugly. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen? There's been some strides, there's been some innovation, but there's also been some what the hell were you thinking? And then we start importing different foods and we pass them off as this, that, or another. And I'm gonna leave that one right there because everybody that's in the food service industry knows exactly what I'm talking about. We'll probably cover it in a future episode. Because we'll talk about catfish, because that one's near and dear to my heart. But that's gonna be a whole episode just on catfish. Go ahead and tell you. But now, as far as are the food service distributors the smoking gun, are they the ones that are who to blame for the issues? No. Are they fixing issues the right way? No, not all of them, some of them. Pre-cut produce, good job. Woohoo! Kudos. I'll stand and give you an applause. But we need to focus on what's wrong. So I know that somebody is in the background going, hey, uh, so what's your answer? How to fix that? If I have three people show up in my kitchen today, Will, how am I gonna fix this? I I need I need to get my dinner service out at the same time that I always do. So what's your answer, Will? You're expecting one person to have the answer when I'm sitting here talking to mega distributors across the U.S. and you don't have the answer? And you have the food service manufacturers in your back pocket, or they have you in their back pocket. That's a whole discussion for another day. Oh, we're gonna talk about that coming up in a few in a few months. Oh, yeah. And that one's probably not gonna gain me very many friends either, and that's okay because it needs to be said. But there's too many games being played, and we need to stop playing games and start trying to figure out how to save these mom and pop restaurants, how to help them stay in business, how to help them find true labor-saving ideas, how to help them find true money-saving ideas, and not just say, here, throw this in a fryer, throw it on a plate, you'll be good. They'll love it. Trust me. All 28 restaurants in your town serve the same one. You can put yours on the menu as signature because you said so. And we'll redo your menu for you and highlight it with circles and gold letters so that it looks more special. People that own restaurants, their biggest concern is not getting help with their menu. Oh, did I just rip another band-aid off? Ah man, I'll tell you what, my fan club is going down today in flames. Or say in the fry in the it's it's going down in the fryer at 500 degrees. That's okay. Because these things need to be said. And I'm just going to touch on each point each week. Next week, we're going to talk about the food service sales rep and what part they play in this role. Like I said, when we get through with all five episodes, I think we're going to have a pretty good idea of where the smoking gun lies and hopefully have some answers to some of these problems. If you're a restaurant owner, I hope you have a very profitable day today. And go ahead and bring on dessert. But until next week, I'll see you again right here behind this big old mic. Thanks for listening. Have a great day. Bye bye.