I don’t think this video explained this phenomenon in enough detail. There was just a single line about how deserts are “outsourced” to save money, but what does this mean exactly? Are they store-bought? Made by some specialized restaurant desert company? And why do they have to be the same three dishes? Still a lot of questions.
Here is a secret. Most restaurants dont make desserts. They often buy wholesale or in bulk like in Costco or frozen ones. Then they defrost it and add cream topping.
This is the sort of thing I was expecting to learn from the video itself, but instead it mostly just talked about profit margins and ignored the issue of where the deserts come from.
@@JJMcCullough I mean, they addressed WHY the restaurants don't have variety, and gave reasons why desserts are not a priority for most places. Then they also mentioned that they outsourced desserts, which makes it clear they just buy them premade
@@normalchannel2185 “outsource” can mean everything from “just buy at Costco” to having a contractual arrangement with some designer bakery who deliver freshly baked pies every morning.
Vox, sigh. You guys really have interesting topics, but you never dive deep enough to make me say “ooooooohhhhhh!” You told us why, but left out the who, what and where! Who’s selling these restaurants the same deserts? What are the other options? What can be done to make the deserts more appealing…maybe a monthly rotation instead of purchasing the same 3 repeatedly? And most importantly, where are the deserts coming from exactly?
I can tell you from working in the industry. US Foods or Sysco. They are the biggest food supply companies. There are smaller companies and there are also specialty food wholesalers. But that is why it's pretty standard for dessert. A restaurant with unique deserts have a pastry chef. But many don't.
This is skirting around the answer. Most desserts are the same because that's one of the main things restaurants stopped doing, and subcontracted from industrial suppliers. Less cost, uniform taste.
The main driver is still too reduce cost, which they said. Uniform taste isn't coming from the restaurants but it's a by-product of the supplier wanting to produce something they can sell to everyone.
Before watching this video, as a restaurantor, i can tell you everyone has the same desert, food taste the same is because every restaurant shops at restaurants depot. Its like a costco for restaurants.
Yup, absolutely correct. My uncle is a longtime chef and restaurateur. I went to Restaurant Depot with him once and asked him, Okay, so what separates everyone here from one another? Everyone is buying the same stuff. He told me, “We all go through the same things, just in different lenses; the difference in the taste of food is just purely the soul.”
This is not explaining at all what the title says. I was expecting some sort of information about who the major dessert for restaurant supplier is or that they buy their desserts from a bakery that makes them specially for them or something.
This video only obliquely answered the question if one can pay attention and formulate a conclusion not directly stated on their own. What wasn't stated is that the typical restaurant only has room for 3 to 5 desserts on the menu, so the most common strategy is to offer the most reliable options (which are also sometimes the most boring and generic/ubiquitous).
It's so true! I usually don't bother getting dessert because of it, I've had those things countless times and they're never as good as homemade/specialty-made. Very interesting vid
Exactly, since they have the same predictable options I'm like ahhhh Nah cuz I've had it before and like you said , they can often be done just as well at home or for that matter purchased at the grocery store bakery for much less.
Aside from not wanting to pay 15$ for a slice of frozen Sara lee with a scoop of bottom dollar ice cream and a drizzle of Hershey's, American restaurants usually have giant portions. Who has room for dessert?
For me, the portions are the main thing keeping me from getting dessert. Even if I love something on the dessert menu, most of the time I'm already full and having to pack up half of my main dish to take home.
There's this little Swiss restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, called 'Swiss To Go' that has cheesecake desserts that are in the shape of a tea cup. Every week (or month, I can't quite remember) they change the flavours, which always fit the seasons. It's a mom and pop sort of restaurant and the person who makes the desserts is one of the owners and is this adorable little old lady and so she can only make so many cheesecakes per day and once they're sold out, that's it, you need to try again the next day. They are amazing! But, the sandwiches are also amazing. However, a lot of people I know, go there for the cheesecakes.
During the 1700s and 1800s, the term entrée evolved to refer to a specific kind of introductory dish eaten after the hors d'œuvre and relevés, and from there something closer to a main course. That was true in Europe as well as North America. Around the turn of the 20th century, French speakers reinterpreted the term entrée based on its literal meaning and went back to calling starters entrées (despite the objections of pedants at the time), and most of the rest of the world followed suit. But North American English speakers didn't get the memo and kept using entrée in its older 19th century sense.
This is wild. cheese cake, lava cake, ice cream. Exact same desserts here in Austria as presumably in the US. I assumed because they were decently popular, cheap and simple to prep and keep available for a long time, same as some restaurants keep sous vide-d steaks for hours at the perfect temperature to be available quickly. Although I'd assume the same goes for various cakes and don't see them that often.
Not true...Austria got a ton of other stuff that's widely served throughout the country: Kaiserschmarrn, Erbeerknödel, Apfelstrudel, Sachertorte and other deserts. Add Tiramisu if it's an Italian restaurant. And here in Europe there's always also "Crème Brulée" in so many restaurants.
@@Carloshache they're probably talking about big chains. In my city there's also a variety but depends on the restaurant and they're usually not chains. They're local restaurants, local chains or specialty restaurants (and even those usually have that tiring lava cake or some version of it).
This is why I always volunteer to bring a dessert when invited for dinner. It’s the last thing they remember, especially if it’s not something that everyone can make. I’ve also found that most people haven’t yet thought about dessert when they actually do the invites so it’s almost always welcomed. And after a couple of hit desserts you become the dessert specialist
They all have the same basic desserts because they are just buying them from places like Restaurant Depot. You just keep it all frozen until it's ready to serve.
This video did a horrible job but essentially they all do because they all get their items wholesale from the same supplier. That way they can mitigate the loss.
Most restaurants aren't even making them in-house unless they're specialty high-end spots. The vast majority will just ship them in from a distributor premade because it's way cheaper and more time efficient.
I'm in nc at the family owned successful restaurant I work at, we also buy our cakes, pies, cheesecakes from a local bakery, they make them better than we could do to equipment issues. We bring the bakery significant business too
I feel like this video was 75% of an explanation. I get that good desserts can be a sale driver of higher-value items. I get that good desserts rely on specialty ingredients, appliances, and staff, and with limited budget, you'll cut those first. I get that cutting dessert budget leads to outsourcing. But what are the factors in outsourcing dessert that inherently lead to homogeneity? I can make assumptions based on my experience in restaurants and food service that the generic desserts are all frozen and therefore easy to store and transport, and that prepping them from frozen doesn't require intense effort, but the video doesn't say this. "Outsourced" _could_ mean many things.
This is telling me that once again, the primary reason restaurants in places like Japan can afford to make everything so well is the lower rent. Plain and simple.
This is true. I never order dessert, specially if they are the "classics" but if they have something special like that lemon, I will always try it. Then if it doesn't taste good, I'll never try it again, no matter how fun it is, but if it tastes good, I will make it part of my meal every time or even come back JUST for it. I've done it before. 😊
Some of the best restaurant desserts are from restaurants that partner with a local bakery. The bakery supplies the desserts to the restaurant and everyone wins!
My solution to the jigsaw puzzle solution around holiday time is fondue. We used to do cheese and chocolate fondue on Christmas Eve. Before I put the leftover chocolate fondue away, I would add a bit of orange or almond liqueur. For Christmas morning or alternatively for dessert, I would make bread pudding with the leftover bread cubes and some eggnog. As a side dish at dinner, I would do a wreath make of the cut up pieces of broccoli and cauliflower studded with cherry tomatoes and steamed in a ring mold. I used the left over cheese fondue, thinned down with milk or cream, as cheese sauce on the veggies. I used to have my daughter roll the left over chocolate ganache from the chocolate fondue in cocoa for truffles.
What happened to the ubiquitous "Banana Split"? It used to be a standard dessert all over the world, because it's all shelf stable toppings, ice cream, bananas are only fresh ish, and cream you have for other things already, so it was a good balance of cost effectiveness and easy to make. Now I see "store bought" Oreo cake and brownies with ice cream everywhere instead 😢
Dessert can really make or break the whole dining experience, and when done right they give people a reason to come back. I will always look at the dessert menu first and plan my order around it.
I think dessert is the most profitable thing they have. In the video they speak about desserts made by them, homemade, but that's few restaurants. Most of them have frozen cakes or ice-cream and they charge like 5€ for a small portion, where a lot of ice-cream bars cost that and can serve like 10 portions easily. These are also easy to preserve so they don't expire like meat. Another option is a piece of fruit for like 3-5€ too, when a kilo costs less
I have been known to order a dessert for my appetizer, another dessert for my entree, and a final dessert for…. well, dessert. Sometimes it’s too hard to choose just one.
Worked in numerous kitchens only one had a cheesecake. None had pies. 2/3 had mudcake 1/3 had sticky date, icecream was in all but we shared with bar but was also on all . Other desserts we had were fruit platters (some with chocolate sauce) cheese platters, Sundays , banana splits, baked rice , creme brulee , churos , jelly , mousse, panna cotta, and my favourite lolliecake. This was over 22 years and a few dozen places
I almost never get dessert because I'm too full from my meal. And, when I want dessert, I don't want a huge slice of cake or pie or a massive bowl of ice cream. I want something I can enjoy in a couple of bits. Just a little sweet to finish off my meal.
Not only did this video do a poor job answering the question it posed in the title, it also didn't give a worthwhile solution to the problem. Problem: custom desserts are hard to fit in to a restaurants bottom line because the ingredients and skillset required are so different from the rest of the menu. Solution: make fancy, complicated desserts that go viral on social media.
I always consider dessert menus to guage a restaurants creativity and whether it's a place I want to go. With dining out being so expensive, I no longer bother with cheesecake type places, I can get that food at the grocery store. We need more French patisserie in this country.
It's embarrassing to see that they would create a video about this when restaurateurs and kitchen crews are in the comments pointing out the tip-toeing of the answer. If actual kitchen staff are able to come up with a better explanation than the video, the video failed to do its research and instead, was produced and released for the sole sake of content. It is great to see certain restaurants succeed, but it seems to be sole cases, with no effort to draw connections as to inspire restaurants to take up a trend of success from the other restaurants who are succeeding.
@@michaeljones8455 'Cause Nintendo is breeding so much innovation with it's many lawsuits. Palword innovated yet capitalism results in a tiny number of wealthy people squatting on everything.
@@michaeljones8455 There is no innovation in dessert -- "thus I argue it is innovative in nature" ... um you do realize this is entirely contradictory. If it sparked innovation, it would be happening. It's not, so it doesn't. They literally said in the video 30-40% of Gen Z buys dessert, thats higher than it used to be for previous generations, so clearly there is a lot of demand for the product and there is no innovation. There's no correlation. Stop glazing your corpo dawg, it's embarrassing
I have family members that run a restaurant. I have been a manager at a fancy restaurant before. They all buy them frozen from companies like US Foods and Sysco.
I have a home in provence and I was amazed how all the deserts were obviously home made. Piping hot apple pies and souffles, obviously just filled in crispy choux, even tempered white chocolate. Usually made by some very old and proud lady who sometimes drops by to see if we enjoyed her work.
As a pastry chef myself, it comes down to not wanting to have an actual pastry chef. It's all about saving money, not appreciating pastry and all the hard work we do. The whole vanilla and chocolate are too expensive is nonsense, the food cost by savory constantly buying meats, seafood, caviar, foie gras, etc drives up the cost. Pastry is expected to do more with less, less cooks, less money, and are underappreciated and aren't shown the proper respect we deserve. Everyone thinks we're just back there having a good time making cookies and cupcakes.
This is painfully US-Centric, which I obviously expect, but it shows a giant rift between North America and Europe. I can’t believe that in 2024 educators teaching “buy a larger piece of meat, and make multiple things out of it; and “hiring trained staff to create dishes that attract Guests to your restaurant” are being treated like some sort of Culinary Rosetta Stone. I don’t know if the US has just relied on hugely industrialised, centralised food industry for so long, that now overheads and wage stagnation have caught up, the bubble has simply burst and Diners are no longer finding value in these propositions. I think there is a wider conversation to be had here.
You’re painfully ignorant of the European restaurant industry if you think the same cost incentives don’t drive similar choices here. Our restaurant culture is different and even reacts differently. But it’s not uniquely immune to these problems. I’ve definitely seen a trend towards the same result here as well. How many restaurants have a chocolate lava cake, brownies or tiramisu or crème brûlée. Guaranteed that most of them are just buying those outsourced.
It's mostly just a silly video. Of course that's how American restaurants work as well, unless they're diners or greasy spoons. The only salient point made here is that it's too expensive for most restaurants to build out a pastry kitchen.
SInce I moved to US, desserts are what I am missing the most. In Ukraine and other European countries, they were so many and so creative, here everything looks the same, especially in coffee shops.
my favorite restaurant dessert ever was a flourless chocolate torte from Spagos in San Fransisco - haven't had it for 27 years but its still one of the best things i've ever eaten
In Cherry Hill, NJ there was a small Lebanese restaurant that we stopped at during travel to Delaware. I recall the food being delicious but I cannot recall what I ate EXCEPT for the amazing lemon sorbet served in a real lemon. Simple. Perfection.
3:56 Outsourcing. I remember going to a coffee shop that outsourced their desserts (cookies, cake, etc) to solely focus on coffee making. It’s pretty smart ngl. The sweets were pretty mid compared to ones made locally cause they’ve been sitting out, but it was alright.
I make the desserts at my place. I do a new cheesecake flavor every two weeks to keep interest high. We also do gluten free Tarts and I make right now a Zucchini Bread that is also GF from a home recipe I fell into. I also try to do a ramekin pie like Pumpkin so that we have 2 regular and 2 gf options. It really adds a simple presentation for one person to get a nice snack which usually explodes into a few more for the rest of the table
You forgot to mention that The word "entree" has a slightly different meaning depending on where you are, In the US and some parts of Canada: "Entree" typically refers to the main course of a meal. In many other parts of the world: "Entree" refers to a small dish served before the main course.
Gage & Tolnar in Brooklyn has a James Beard award-winning pastry chef, so their desserts are just as a good and memorable than their entrees and appetizers. She also makes their bread, which is the best in NYC
It’s amazing how nobody here has considered that most diners actually WANT the „boring“ cheesecake etc? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!! For most people food is about comfort not excitement
At least for me, there is also an awkwardness around desserts at restaurants. At the tier of restaurants I go to, the desserts are on the same menu as everything else, which gets taken immediately after ordering. I either have to decide on a dessert when choosing my entree and remember it throughout the meal, awkwardly ask to keep the menu when the waiter starts taking them all after ordering, or ask for it back at the end of the meal. Then if I ask for it, I feel pressured to then get something. It's cheesy, but I feel like places like Applebees have a good system with the separate dessert menu that stays at the table.
One of the chefs I work with specifically made an effort to get really good at desserts and pastries. His reasoning was that according to him, many dessert/pastry chefs have a bad habit of fudging numbers or springing for lots of high-end ingredients that savory chefs and owners are oblivious about and mindlessly sign off on. He wanted to be able to call any working with him out on that.
I’m always disappointed in the dessert options at high end restaurants and this video explains a lot! I’m happy to spend the money on a speciality coffee and dessert when we go out but like the video shows, we often look at the dessert menu and leave. What about bringing back the dessert cart of the past? I’ve seen it in movies- someone pushing around a cart laden with decadent cakes topped high with whipped cream. Even if the offerings on it are standard or run of the mill, I bet there is a way higher chance of patrons buying a dessert if the dessert cart is brought by their table.
This should be pretty easy to answer. Most restaurants don't have pastry chefs and these are the easiest desserts to buy ready made or that non-pastry chefs can make quickly. I answered that without watching any of the video.
In portland they've turned to semi permanent food carts in a pod of carts worth a central sitting area which greatly reduces the cost of renting a space
THE EXACT THING I'M ASKING MYSELF!!! It's always the same desserts just as you described in every restaurant I have gone to, Cheese Cake, Chocolate Lava Cake with ice cream, some sort of fruit pie and just a scoop of ice cream
One of the things they don’t really touch on is the other side of taking a chicken (or other raw ingredient) apart is that you have to pay an employee to do it. So the question becomes, is it cheaper to pay an employee to do it in house, or buy it pre-done at a higher cost?
Yeah I realized this a few years ago when it seemed like every restaurant had those giant red velvet and carrot cakes. Found out from a friend that most places buy in their fries and tater tots frozen also.
In my experience the person working garde manger is often also plating desserts. So when the desserts from the first seating come in they are also getting tickets for appetizers for the second. I find desserts to be very simple for that reason. Also chefs want their crew (and themselves) to leave fast at the end of the night so anything hot or made a la minute will be an automatic no at least partially for that reason as well.
I remember when desserts were more memorable. I remember when restaurants used to sell amazing Indian Pudding. Now I can’t find Indian Pudding anywhere…
A big reason must be that a small percentage order deserts. I rarely feel in the mode for an elaborate desert after dinner. So only having a small selection of safe options makes sense. Maybe if I go to a cafe and this is what I eat.
I'm a pastry chef that manages a cafe because nobody wants to pay pastry chefs enough. I'm my first job out of culinary school I quickly realized i needed to find better like front of house.
Another reason is that if you order an appetizer it is _in_ _additioon_ to the main course (=more revenue). Whereas if you order a desert you are going to linger and the restaurant could have sold another more expensive main course to another customer instead (=less revenue overall). Therefore restaurants couldn't care less about desert.
I’ve found people are least adventurous when it comes to desserts. They kinda just want their cake ice cream or pie and if they even want that they’ll usually go to a separate dessert or boba shop after dinner
My question is why restaurants are always so conservative with real pictures of their menu items ? I'm way more inclined to try new items or even eat at the restaurant all together if I can see what the food looks like, the quantity is another important thing it can tell you too
I don’t think this video explained this phenomenon in enough detail. There was just a single line about how deserts are “outsourced” to save money, but what does this mean exactly? Are they store-bought? Made by some specialized restaurant desert company? And why do they have to be the same three dishes? Still a lot of questions.
restaurant depot sells these desserts premade they just have to he heated up in restaurants
hi JJ
looks like it's an opportunity for you to investigate and make a proper video!
Yeah, there was a really good opportunity to talk about the Sodexo and Aramark supply chains. This piece doesn't seem up to Vox quality.
The majority of these desserts come from SYSCO.
Here is a secret. Most restaurants dont make desserts. They often buy wholesale or in bulk like in Costco or frozen ones. Then they defrost it and add cream topping.
This is the sort of thing I was expecting to learn from the video itself, but instead it mostly just talked about profit margins and ignored the issue of where the deserts come from.
@@JJMcCullough
Omg its J.J. McCullough
Most big grocery stores also don't make bread, they get it frozen and just bake it
@@JJMcCullough I mean, they addressed WHY the restaurants don't have variety, and gave reasons why desserts are not a priority for most places.
Then they also mentioned that they outsourced desserts, which makes it clear they just buy them premade
@@normalchannel2185 “outsource” can mean everything from “just buy at Costco” to having a contractual arrangement with some designer bakery who deliver freshly baked pies every morning.
Vox, sigh. You guys really have interesting topics, but you never dive deep enough to make me say “ooooooohhhhhh!” You told us why, but left out the who, what and where! Who’s selling these restaurants the same deserts? What are the other options? What can be done to make the deserts more appealing…maybe a monthly rotation instead of purchasing the same 3 repeatedly? And most importantly, where are the deserts coming from exactly?
Did you grow up watching the food network and eating at restaurants? It’s not strictly for educational purposes. Its UA-cam.
I can tell you from working in the industry. US Foods or Sysco. They are the biggest food supply companies. There are smaller companies and there are also specialty food wholesalers. But that is why it's pretty standard for dessert. A restaurant with unique deserts have a pastry chef. But many don't.
deontaer, sigh. Vox isn’t or doesn’t have to be a school-like article or essay.
Thats the point they wanna make you interested in a topic and fuel your own research
U clicked on a 7 minute video expecting what exactly?
This is skirting around the answer.
Most desserts are the same because that's one of the main things restaurants stopped doing, and subcontracted from industrial suppliers.
Less cost, uniform taste.
Exactly, plus most restaurants aren’t willing to employ a pastry chef, which is what’s needed for a dedicated dessert menu
The main driver is still too reduce cost, which they said. Uniform taste isn't coming from the restaurants but it's a by-product of the supplier wanting to produce something they can sell to everyone.
Did you even watch the video? They said exactly that.
@@roryl Seriously. Hahaha.
Did you watch the video or no?
Before watching this video, as a restaurantor, i can tell you everyone has the same desert, food taste the same is because every restaurant shops at restaurants depot. Its like a costco for restaurants.
Yup, absolutely correct. My uncle is a longtime chef and restaurateur. I went to Restaurant Depot with him once and asked him, Okay, so what separates everyone here from one another? Everyone is buying the same stuff. He told me, “We all go through the same things, just in different lenses; the difference in the taste of food is just purely the soul.”
It felt like they were about to tell us this important fact (and the promised answer from the title)… then they got hung up on the lemon cheesecake.
Yes exactly
Well, Sysco and US, but...
UK: chocolate brownies with ice cream, sticky toffee pudding with ice cream, and a cheesecake
Apple/fruit/rhubarb crumble too
and they ALL taste only of sugar. UK desserts are not very good at all.
UK desserts should be outlawed
Supplied by brakes or Bidfood that both purchase from same suppliers
This is profiterole erasure
This is not explaining at all what the title says. I was expecting some sort of information about who the major dessert for restaurant supplier is or that they buy their desserts from a bakery that makes them specially for them or something.
This video only obliquely answered the question if one can pay attention and formulate a conclusion not directly stated on their own. What wasn't stated is that the typical restaurant only has room for 3 to 5 desserts on the menu, so the most common strategy is to offer the most reliable options (which are also sometimes the most boring and generic/ubiquitous).
You have to lack critical thinking skills if you missed that part.
It's so true! I usually don't bother getting dessert because of it, I've had those things countless times and they're never as good as homemade/specialty-made. Very interesting vid
only some are worth it , those fancy places are worth it or dessert specialty places
Exactly, since they have the same predictable options I'm like ahhhh Nah cuz I've had it before and like you said , they can often be done just as well at home or for that matter purchased at the grocery store bakery for much less.
Aside from not wanting to pay 15$ for a slice of frozen Sara lee with a scoop of bottom dollar ice cream and a drizzle of Hershey's, American restaurants usually have giant portions. Who has room for dessert?
For me, the portions are the main thing keeping me from getting dessert. Even if I love something on the dessert menu, most of the time I'm already full and having to pack up half of my main dish to take home.
I do!
I wish we could have smaller portions with a price to match, but usually that actually drives the price up! Either way, I wouldn't be getting dessert.
I usually eat half the food and leave the rest as leftovers, so I usually want dessert after just to top off the feeling of eating out
Spoken like a European
There's this little Swiss restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, called 'Swiss To Go' that has cheesecake desserts that are in the shape of a tea cup. Every week (or month, I can't quite remember) they change the flavours, which always fit the seasons.
It's a mom and pop sort of restaurant and the person who makes the desserts is one of the owners and is this adorable little old lady and so she can only make so many cheesecakes per day and once they're sold out, that's it, you need to try again the next day.
They are amazing! But, the sandwiches are also amazing. However, a lot of people I know, go there for the cheesecakes.
Before reading the rest if your comment, I thought I was about to read Swiss Chalet! 😅
Thanks for the heads up! I'm going to make a stop there next summer when I drive out from Vancouver
YOOO there’s BIG DESSERT?!?!
Haven’t you heard? There’s “BIG” everything and anything, as long as people believe in it
Murica
There’s a big salad, why wouldn’t there be a big dessert
In the pocket of Big Diabetes
🤤
Still don’t understand why Americans call the main an entrée and the entrée an appetiser
I had no idea they did. It makes more sense now 😅
It's mind boggling...
That explains it. I was like, huh there is a starter and an appetizer what?
I don't know the reasoning, but for most people the main is the entree, ie the first and only thing they order.
During the 1700s and 1800s, the term entrée evolved to refer to a specific kind of introductory dish eaten after the hors d'œuvre and relevés, and from there something closer to a main course. That was true in Europe as well as North America. Around the turn of the 20th century, French speakers reinterpreted the term entrée based on its literal meaning and went back to calling starters entrées (despite the objections of pedants at the time), and most of the rest of the world followed suit. But North American English speakers didn't get the memo and kept using entrée in its older 19th century sense.
This is wild. cheese cake, lava cake, ice cream. Exact same desserts here in Austria as presumably in the US. I assumed because they were decently popular, cheap and simple to prep and keep available for a long time, same as some restaurants keep sous vide-d steaks for hours at the perfect temperature to be available quickly. Although I'd assume the same goes for various cakes and don't see them that often.
Agreed but usually they taste sooo average, sometimes even bad. Not worth it.
Did you watch the video?
Not true...Austria got a ton of other stuff that's widely served throughout the country: Kaiserschmarrn, Erbeerknödel, Apfelstrudel, Sachertorte and other deserts. Add Tiramisu if it's an Italian restaurant.
And here in Europe there's always also "Crème Brulée" in so many restaurants.
@@Carloshache they're probably talking about big chains. In my city there's also a variety but depends on the restaurant and they're usually not chains. They're local restaurants, local chains or specialty restaurants (and even those usually have that tiring lava cake or some version of it).
That lemon dessert looked really good!
Yess , the moment they showed it , the video just light up for me , the dessert shown were quite mouth watering
This is why I always volunteer to bring a dessert when invited for dinner. It’s the last thing they remember, especially if it’s not something that everyone can make. I’ve also found that most people haven’t yet thought about dessert when they actually do the invites so it’s almost always welcomed. And after a couple of hit desserts you become the dessert specialist
Other than special occasions, I usually don’t order desserts at restaurants anyway. I’d rather support a locally owned ice cream shop after dinner.
I think the main reason people don't order desserts is because they are avoiding sugar and everything that is made with sugar.
@ Great point! Most desserts are loaded with it!
They all have the same basic desserts because they are just buying them from places like Restaurant Depot. You just keep it all frozen until it's ready to serve.
In the Netherlands its always: creme brûlée, dame blanche, brownie and apple pie.
Tiramisu
Australia it's a choice from these; cheesecake, carrot cake, orange cake, sticky date pudding, chocolate cake, brownie, hedgehog slice, caramel slice, ice cream.
And tiramisu, baklava and cheesecake
I may have missed something but... I still don't know why every restaurant has the same desserts
@@guillermorosalesgonzalez1308 the video didn’t do a good job explaining.
Very true
This video did a horrible job but essentially they all do because they all get their items wholesale from the same supplier. That way they can mitigate the loss.
@@JJMcCulloughAriana what are you doing in here??
Basically they all come from Costco
Most restaurants all buy their stuff from the same supplier, and that supplier is almost always Sysco.
or USFoods
@fr3shSwag yeah, and Sysco tried to by US Foods in 2013 (for over $8B) but fortunately the FTC blocked the deal on anti-competitive grounds.
@@WhiskeyNixon Yes I remember that bc I was working at USFoods at the time. They would have owned around 80% of the market.
But surely the supplier offers more than just the same three or four things?
This problem exists in France too. Every restaurant has a tisamisu, a chocolate mousse, and some kind of fruit crumble thing. They’re always boring.
Most restaurants aren't even making them in-house unless they're specialty high-end spots. The vast majority will just ship them in from a distributor premade because it's way cheaper and more time efficient.
And they mentioned having space in the kitchen and storage for ingredients which is something I never considered. They pay for every square foot
I'm in nc at the family owned successful restaurant I work at, we also buy our cakes, pies, cheesecakes from a local bakery, they make them better than we could do to equipment issues. We bring the bakery significant business too
This sounds like a much more sound plan. It helps keep it local and interesting without getting homogeneous.
I feel like this video was 75% of an explanation. I get that good desserts can be a sale driver of higher-value items. I get that good desserts rely on specialty ingredients, appliances, and staff, and with limited budget, you'll cut those first. I get that cutting dessert budget leads to outsourcing. But what are the factors in outsourcing dessert that inherently lead to homogeneity? I can make assumptions based on my experience in restaurants and food service that the generic desserts are all frozen and therefore easy to store and transport, and that prepping them from frozen doesn't require intense effort, but the video doesn't say this. "Outsourced" _could_ mean many things.
This is telling me that once again, the primary reason restaurants in places like Japan can afford to make everything so well is the lower rent. Plain and simple.
This is true. I never order dessert, specially if they are the "classics" but if they have something special like that lemon, I will always try it. Then if it doesn't taste good, I'll never try it again, no matter how fun it is, but if it tastes good, I will make it part of my meal every time or even come back JUST for it. I've done it before. 😊
Some of the best restaurant desserts are from restaurants that partner with a local bakery. The bakery supplies the desserts to the restaurant and everyone wins!
My solution to the jigsaw puzzle solution around holiday time is fondue. We used to do cheese and chocolate fondue on Christmas Eve. Before I put the leftover chocolate fondue away, I would add a bit of orange or almond liqueur. For Christmas morning or alternatively for dessert, I would make bread pudding with the leftover bread cubes and some eggnog. As a side dish at dinner, I would do a wreath make of the cut up pieces of broccoli and cauliflower studded with cherry tomatoes and steamed in a ring mold. I used the left over cheese fondue, thinned down with milk or cream, as cheese sauce on the veggies. I used to have my daughter roll the left over chocolate ganache from the chocolate fondue in cocoa for truffles.
What happened to the ubiquitous "Banana Split"? It used to be a standard dessert all over the world, because it's all shelf stable toppings, ice cream, bananas are only fresh ish, and cream you have for other things already, so it was a good balance of cost effectiveness and easy to make. Now I see "store bought" Oreo cake and brownies with ice cream everywhere instead 😢
Dessert can really make or break the whole dining experience, and when done right they give people a reason to come back. I will always look at the dessert menu first and plan my order around it.
That’s odd
i honestly don't think this is true for anyone else but you
yeah if I go to a steakhouse I want steak. I'm not deciding whether I want cheesecake or not.
@MsJubjubbird Happy for you 🙂
I think dessert is the most profitable thing they have. In the video they speak about desserts made by them, homemade, but that's few restaurants.
Most of them have frozen cakes or ice-cream and they charge like 5€ for a small portion, where a lot of ice-cream bars cost that and can serve like 10 portions easily. These are also easy to preserve so they don't expire like meat.
Another option is a piece of fruit for like 3-5€ too, when a kilo costs less
Never thought about this
I have been known to order a dessert for my appetizer, another dessert for my entree, and a final dessert for…. well, dessert. Sometimes it’s too hard to choose just one.
Always great seeing our co-founder Chef Kathryn Gordon sharing knowledge about the food business!
Worked in numerous kitchens only one had a cheesecake. None had pies. 2/3 had mudcake 1/3 had sticky date, icecream was in all but we shared with bar but was also on all . Other desserts we had were fruit platters (some with chocolate sauce) cheese platters, Sundays , banana splits, baked rice , creme brulee , churos , jelly , mousse, panna cotta, and my favourite lolliecake. This was over 22 years and a few dozen places
The lemon shaped thing looks so good!!
I almost never get dessert because I'm too full from my meal. And, when I want dessert, I don't want a huge slice of cake or pie or a massive bowl of ice cream. I want something I can enjoy in a couple of bits. Just a little sweet to finish off my meal.
Not only did this video do a poor job answering the question it posed in the title, it also didn't give a worthwhile solution to the problem.
Problem: custom desserts are hard to fit in to a restaurants bottom line because the ingredients and skillset required are so different from the rest of the menu.
Solution: make fancy, complicated desserts that go viral on social media.
Honestly some days I literally just want a piece or two of chocolate, not another meal. I might start carrying my own
Soux chef is the most important person in the kitchen, pastry chef is the most valuable
No, the dishwasher is the most important
I always consider dessert menus to guage a restaurants creativity and whether it's a place I want to go. With dining out being so expensive, I no longer bother with cheesecake type places, I can get that food at the grocery store.
We need more French patisserie in this country.
Cheers, to Kathryn Gordon!! An excellent instructor.
It's embarrassing to see that they would create a video about this when restaurateurs and kitchen crews are in the comments pointing out the tip-toeing of the answer. If actual kitchen staff are able to come up with a better explanation than the video, the video failed to do its research and instead, was produced and released for the sole sake of content. It is great to see certain restaurants succeed, but it seems to be sole cases, with no effort to draw connections as to inspire restaurants to take up a trend of success from the other restaurants who are succeeding.
but but but capitalism breeds innovation ! /s
I would argue it does, where needed. The market/consumer is not demanding better desserts, thus we are not getting better desserts.
@@michaeljones8455 'Cause Nintendo is breeding so much innovation with it's many lawsuits. Palword innovated yet capitalism results in a tiny number of wealthy people squatting on everything.
@michaeljones8455 demand is an illusion. it's astrology. The owner class does what it wants when it wants.
@@michaeljones8455 There is no innovation in dessert -- "thus I argue it is innovative in nature" ... um you do realize this is entirely contradictory. If it sparked innovation, it would be happening. It's not, so it doesn't. They literally said in the video 30-40% of Gen Z buys dessert, thats higher than it used to be for previous generations, so clearly there is a lot of demand for the product and there is no innovation. There's no correlation. Stop glazing your corpo dawg, it's embarrassing
This is an excellent segment, thank you for sharing.
I have family members that run a restaurant. I have been a manager at a fancy restaurant before. They all buy them frozen from companies like US Foods and Sysco.
I have a home in provence and I was amazed how all the deserts were obviously home made. Piping hot apple pies and souffles, obviously just filled in crispy choux, even tempered white chocolate. Usually made by some very old and proud lady who sometimes drops by to see if we enjoyed her work.
As a pastry chef myself, it comes down to not wanting to have an actual pastry chef. It's all about saving money, not appreciating pastry and all the hard work we do. The whole vanilla and chocolate are too expensive is nonsense, the food cost by savory constantly buying meats, seafood, caviar, foie gras, etc drives up the cost. Pastry is expected to do more with less, less cooks, less money, and are underappreciated and aren't shown the proper respect we deserve. Everyone thinks we're just back there having a good time making cookies and cupcakes.
So, why does every restaurant have the same desserts?
This is painfully US-Centric, which I obviously expect, but it shows a giant rift between North America and Europe.
I can’t believe that in 2024 educators teaching “buy a larger piece of meat, and make multiple things out of it; and “hiring trained staff to create dishes that attract Guests to your restaurant” are being treated like some sort of Culinary Rosetta Stone.
I don’t know if the US has just relied on hugely industrialised, centralised food industry for so long, that now overheads and wage stagnation have caught up, the bubble has simply burst and Diners are no longer finding value in these propositions.
I think there is a wider conversation to be had here.
to be fair is a trend also on average restaurant even in italy, and only above average one have exclusively home made dessert.
You’re painfully ignorant of the European restaurant industry if you think the same cost incentives don’t drive similar choices here.
Our restaurant culture is different and even reacts differently. But it’s not uniquely immune to these problems. I’ve definitely seen a trend towards the same result here as well. How many restaurants have a chocolate lava cake, brownies or tiramisu or crème brûlée. Guaranteed that most of them are just buying those outsourced.
Who woulda thunk a US based media channel would be UC-centric
It's mostly just a silly video. Of course that's how American restaurants work as well, unless they're diners or greasy spoons.
The only salient point made here is that it's too expensive for most restaurants to build out a pastry kitchen.
This is all very common in Europe too.
The greatest blessing of my life has been not having to run a small business.
SInce I moved to US, desserts are what I am missing the most. In Ukraine and other European countries, they were so many and so creative, here everything looks the same, especially in coffee shops.
I miss delicious desserts at restaurants 😢
Sometimes after eating out, we get frozen custard from Culver’s, since we’d rather have that than one of the generic desserts at the restaurant.
i make decent monies, but, i dont go to restaurants anymore. $30 for a burger? i can make 10 of them that taste better and healthier
Where in the world do you pay $30 for a burger? That's Switzerland prices and if you live there you are used to it and can afford it :D
@@Barandur That's way more expensive than it would be in Switzerland!
It's funny because the last thing I would think of eating in a restaurant is a burger. You go to restaurants to eat things you don't know how to make.
@@KeatrithAmakiir True, but with fries and a Coke you can spend $30, at least in Zürich
@@Barandur ya, that I'd definitely believe
my favorite restaurant dessert ever was a flourless chocolate torte from Spagos in San Fransisco - haven't had it for 27 years but its still one of the best things i've ever eaten
You assume I can still afford to go out to eat
In Cherry Hill, NJ there was a small Lebanese restaurant that we stopped at during travel to Delaware. I recall the food being delicious but I cannot recall what I ate EXCEPT for the amazing lemon sorbet served in a real lemon. Simple. Perfection.
They mass produce those too.
They’re everywhere in NY
Stopped getting dessert at restaurants in the early 1990s, because the taste was not worth the calories
“Lava cake. Ice cream. Groundbreaking.”
-Miranda Priestly
3:56 Outsourcing. I remember going to a coffee shop that outsourced their desserts (cookies, cake, etc) to solely focus on coffee making. It’s pretty smart ngl. The sweets were pretty mid compared to ones made locally cause they’ve been sitting out, but it was alright.
Americans calling their primary course "entrees" is making me mad 😂
We call them Mains now. As in the main course. I agree “entrees” is incorrect but also dated.
Make sure every item on your menu is good. No fillers..
Two months ago to my shock I found myself knocking on the door of diabetic at 59. Goodbye sugary drinks, pastries, decadent deserts.
I make the desserts at my place. I do a new cheesecake flavor every two weeks to keep interest high. We also do gluten free Tarts and I make right now a Zucchini Bread that is also GF from a home recipe I fell into. I also try to do a ramekin pie like Pumpkin so that we have 2 regular and 2 gf options. It really adds a simple presentation for one person to get a nice snack which usually explodes into a few more for the rest of the table
You forgot to mention that The word "entree" has a slightly different meaning depending on where you are, In the US and some parts of Canada: "Entree" typically refers to the main course of a meal. In many other parts of the world: "Entree" refers to a small dish served before the main course.
Gage & Tolnar in Brooklyn has a James Beard award-winning pastry chef, so their desserts are just as a good and memorable than their entrees and appetizers. She also makes their bread, which is the best in NYC
So normally people don’t order dessert at restaurants. Often times I opt to go somewhere else for dessert.
It’s amazing how nobody here has considered that most diners actually WANT the „boring“ cheesecake etc? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!! For most people food is about comfort not excitement
The staple: A single scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Go to an ice cream store for that.
At least for me, there is also an awkwardness around desserts at restaurants. At the tier of restaurants I go to, the desserts are on the same menu as everything else, which gets taken immediately after ordering. I either have to decide on a dessert when choosing my entree and remember it throughout the meal, awkwardly ask to keep the menu when the waiter starts taking them all after ordering, or ask for it back at the end of the meal. Then if I ask for it, I feel pressured to then get something. It's cheesy, but I feel like places like Applebees have a good system with the separate dessert menu that stays at the table.
I hold restaurants that make their own desserts and have an in-house pastry chef above the rest.
One of the chefs I work with specifically made an effort to get really good at desserts and pastries. His reasoning was that according to him, many dessert/pastry chefs have a bad habit of fudging numbers or springing for lots of high-end ingredients that savory chefs and owners are oblivious about and mindlessly sign off on. He wanted to be able to call any working with him out on that.
I’m always disappointed in the dessert options at high end restaurants and this video explains a lot! I’m happy to spend the money on a speciality coffee and dessert when we go out but like the video shows, we often look at the dessert menu and leave.
What about bringing back the dessert cart of the past? I’ve seen it in movies- someone pushing around a cart laden with decadent cakes topped high with whipped cream. Even if the offerings on it are standard or run of the mill, I bet there is a way higher chance of patrons buying a dessert if the dessert cart is brought by their table.
It’s because the sweetest thing is something you’re already familiar with.
This should be pretty easy to answer. Most restaurants don't have pastry chefs and these are the easiest desserts to buy ready made or that non-pastry chefs can make quickly. I answered that without watching any of the video.
In portland they've turned to semi permanent food carts in a pod of carts worth a central sitting area which greatly reduces the cost of renting a space
THE EXACT THING I'M ASKING MYSELF!!! It's always the same desserts just as you described in every restaurant I have gone to, Cheese Cake, Chocolate Lava Cake with ice cream, some sort of fruit pie and just a scoop of ice cream
One of the things they don’t really touch on is the other side of taking a chicken (or other raw ingredient) apart is that you have to pay an employee to do it. So the question becomes, is it cheaper to pay an employee to do it in house, or buy it pre-done at a higher cost?
Yeah I realized this a few years ago when it seemed like every restaurant had those giant red velvet and carrot cakes.
Found out from a friend that most places buy in their fries and tater tots frozen also.
Desserts are one of the first things I look at... if it is the same stuff, normally just have a main and go elsewhere after.
In my experience the person working garde manger is often also plating desserts. So when the desserts from the first seating come in they are also getting tickets for appetizers for the second. I find desserts to be very simple for that reason. Also chefs want their crew (and themselves) to leave fast at the end of the night so anything hot or made a la minute will be an automatic no at least partially for that reason as well.
I remember when desserts were more memorable. I remember when restaurants used to sell amazing Indian Pudding. Now I can’t find Indian Pudding anywhere…
A big reason must be that a small percentage order deserts. I rarely feel in the mode for an elaborate desert after dinner. So only having a small selection of safe options makes sense.
Maybe if I go to a cafe and this is what I eat.
I'll be in NYC next week and now I need a lemon shaped cheesecake that I didn't know I needed.
It’s because they can be easily prepackaged and frozen in individual servings that require little to no prep
This is true in Nova Scotia too. However lower end diners and small family restaurants still have well prepared food and homemade desserts.
I'm a pastry chef that manages a cafe because nobody wants to pay pastry chefs enough. I'm my first job out of culinary school I quickly realized i needed to find better like front of house.
Now I know why the desert always taste the same wherever I go.
Another reason is that if you order an appetizer it is _in_ _additioon_ to the main course (=more revenue). Whereas if you order a desert you are going to linger and the restaurant could have sold another more expensive main course to another customer instead (=less revenue overall). Therefore restaurants couldn't care less about desert.
1:30 How to lie with graphs 101: do not start at a zero.
How to make a graph easier to read in a quick video that most people will be viewing on a small screen 101: do not start at zero
Can hardly call this journalism
At a pizza place there is literally no reason to order dessert... when you can just get more pizza instead ;)
Most restaurants in this area not only have the same desserts, they have the same menus.
*American only
I've been learning to make amazing desserts at home
I sought out a restaurant only because i heard it had a unique "milky" lemonade that was delicious.
I’ve found people are least adventurous when it comes to desserts. They kinda just want their cake ice cream or pie and if they even want that they’ll usually go to a separate dessert or boba shop after dinner
My question is why restaurants are always so conservative with real pictures of their menu items ? I'm way more inclined to try new items or even eat at the restaurant all together if I can see what the food looks like, the quantity is another important thing it can tell you too