You mentioned that. For the sake of discussion, I was asking you to elaborate a bit so that I could understand what you meant when you said that the food at WDW “is barely olive garden in quality.”
The thread is about a price increase to food on property. I agree that food prices are unreasonably high. The meals I’ve had at WDW have not been worth the cost to me. While the price increases are something we can quantify, the food quality is a bit more subjective. Some here have said that they think the food is of lower quality. I’m interested to know the difference in perceived quality.
You mention “Olive Garden.” For some people, that might be a good thing. Personally, I’m not a fan because I know that very little of the food is actually made on-site, and much of it is frozen or comes in bags and buckets. But I also happen to know that much of the food at WDW also comes in bags and buckets, and that they’ve done it that way for many years.
No, I don't see people at Disney's Italian restaurants making gnocchi from scratch with organic yukon gold potatoes, semolina flour and farm fresh eggs each morning.
IF they do make it from scratch it would be with the cheapest of all-purpose flour, commercial russet potatoes, and the cheapest of eggs from sick/dying chickens stuffed in cages for their whole lives. More than likely, it's Sysco (or whatever food supplier WDW uses) "fresh" gnocchi in a package that is boiled to order and added to the finishing pan with the other ingredients.
Many people also don't understand that food quality grades are varied and complex. For example, you could say that you have steak on your menu. What grade do you think it is? Most people can think of a couple of grades. Actually their are 8 grades of beef all the with prefix U.S. : Canner, Cutter, Utility, Commercial, Standard, Select, Choice, and Prime. Some even fine-tune the grade with "AAA Prime" or other such variances. On top of the grade you have the cut, which we all know some are better than others. Then you have different breeds of cattle and how/where the animal was raised. You have free-range, organic, grass-fed, pasture raised, local (allowing for true fresh meat, never frozen), Kosher, Natural, Humanely-raised, no antibiotics/hormones, Angus, Wagyu, and Kobe.
From just one category of meat it is very easy to see the path a company can take to a slow (or fast) decline in food quality when you start choosing lower quality ingredients. Lower quality = lower cost. Unfortunately for current management that is the only equation that matters.
This type of hierarchy within a food category is not unique to beef. Other meat, such as chicken, have the same. For personal experience I highly suggest you cook a Tyson "fresh" chicken breast and a Joyce Farms Poulet Rouge Whole Heritage chicken breast and taste them at the same time. The difference will blow your mind. You will be convinced Tyson has you eating a rubber chicken. It's also not unique to meat. Try a Walmart bakery Italian loaf of bread and tell me it's the same as a fresh loaf from a real bakery. Read the ingredients. What's a dough conditioner or the other stuff you can't pronounce? I'll keep it brief...it's not what good bakers put in their fresh bread, but it does have to do with why you can keep it for about a week or more without it getting moldy. (That's not as positive as it sounds.) Also, take Kraft grated Parmesan and compare it to a Parmesan wedge you fresh grate yourself. Get a "cheaper" wedge from the local grocery in the cheese section, and then go get a "real" Parmesan chunk from Whole Foods. You will notice a vast chasm between Kraft grated (with anti-caking agents making up a significant amount of the "parmesan") and the "real" Parmesan from Whole Foods. The wedge from the local grocery will also taste a little different. Better than Kraft but not quite as good as Whole Foods.
The point is in just one dish a substitution or downgrade of several ingredients, even if not downgraded by much, will still be noticed in overall taste, flavor, tenderness, texture, and so forth. So, there are not two tiers of cooking: frozen microwaved and "fresh made". There are many nuances that will alter the quality and enjoyment of the food we eat.
Have I seen Disney's food quality slide? Yes. Majorly. The reasons would only be known if you were involved in the food order process for a Disney restaurant. A few "small" changes in quality of ingredients when all put together in the same dish will be noticed.
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