The night I finally understood why my old boss was so picky about stock

We had a huge catering gig for 200 people in Portland last Thursday, and our usual supplier sent us chicken stock that tasted like salty water. I had to make a fresh batch from scratch in 90 minutes with just carcasses from the walk-in. The difference in the risotto was insane, like night and day. Anyone else have a moment where a basic ingredient being wrong threw your whole prep into chaos?

3 comments

3 Comments

anderson.sandra2mo ago

Isn't it crazy how one cheap or rushed ingredient can mess up a whole dish? I see this everywhere now, like how a bad battery can ruin a remote or thin paint makes a whole room look worse. It feels like companies are cutting corners on simple stuff, hoping we won't notice. That stock story proves we always do.

skylerp201mo ago

Hannah919 makes a good point but I think we're blowing this way out of proportion honestly. I mean yeah it sucks when a restaurant serves watery stock or a cheap remote dies after a week but that's like $4 at the dollar store, not exactly life altering stuff. The stock example from anderson.sandra is annoying sure but most people probably didn't even notice until someone pointed it out online. We act like every little corner cut is some huge betrayal when really it's just capitalism doing its thing, you know? If you're that bothered just cook from scratch or buy the mid tier brand it's not that deep.

hannah9192mo ago

But why do they keep doing it when we always notice? It's like they're betting on us getting tired of complaining. Maybe we just need to stop buying the cheap version every time.