Subbing ingredients? AP reporter seeks your story

Hello forum members,

I'm an AP reporter working on an article about restaurants substituting expensive ingredients with cheaper ones to cope with rising food costs. If you're doing this and would be willing to do a brief telephone interview, please e-mail me at stevensonjacobs(at)gmail.com and let me know a number where I can reach you. I have a tight deadline so am hoping to speak with restaurant owners/operators this evening. Many thanks in advance for your help.

Best,

Stevenson Jacobs

For anyone interested, Jacobs is a business reporter for The Associated Press in New York. He's legitimate.

Just giving this a bump. I'm pretty sure nobody will respond unless they can remain anonymous.

Mr. Jacobs,

I think you may be a big dog hunting up the wrong tree here. I do hope you get your story and I anticipate reading it. Hopefully, you are hunting up many trees because I do not think you will get much here. For the most part, Roadfood pros do...well, simple food. There is not much room for substitution.

Many of our pros are hot dog vendors, I don't know what one would substitute a hot dog with.
Perhaps a cheaper hot dog, but I do not think they would do it. If you are known for hot dogs, it better be a good one.

Many other of our pros are independent owners of small businesses which have a fiercely loyal clientele. I doubt they would endanger their customer base with substitutions. How can one substitute ribs for something else? Cheaper sauce, maybe but I do not think anyone would endanger their signature product and loyal clientele for such a switch.

You may find a diner watering down the ketchup, but that is nothing new and not newsworthy.

Again, I hope you get your story and I do think there is a story here, but it is in the higher end restaurants. Right here, I think you are fishing in the wrong pond.

Hi Greyghost,

Thanks for your response, and for those above as well. You raise a good point and I appreciate your insight. Also _ and I forgot to say this in my original post _ thanks to the moderators and forum members for allowing a post from a non-restaurant professional.


All best,

Stevenson Jacobs

Here's the article Mr. Jacobs wrote concerning this subject.

http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/397694.html

Greyghost is far too right ...This is a vendor site for all intents and purposes. I have no idea how it became one, but it is. It is misnamed in my opinion and I've stated that several times to no avail. There should be a Professional Restaurant Operators Site (Brick and Mortar) and a Professional Vendors Site. The poster might be better off on Misc - Food related.

But, getting back to the project. How is this research a positive for the restaurant industry? An article about substituting ingredients to save money? Personally, it is very disconcerting. I go to my favorite restaurants and order my traditional favorites they are associated with. If the ingredients are altered, I'm not coming back!

No, if you need to raise the prices to keep the same quality, then do it! Everyone knows the score today. Things just cost more and customers have to understand this and pay more. Skimping..Changing ingredients..Don't go there!

Thanks for the link!

From the article:
<<"What you don't want to do in an uncertain economy is make people think they're getting ripped off," Wolf said.>>

Rising prices are par for the course. Since the oil companies did it, and got away with it, now everyone wants to do it. But I'd still rather pay more for the same steak or bbq sandwich than eat "reformulated" pizza cheese at the same price.

You never subsitute a recipe with cheaper ingredients...it changes the taste, and your customers will know it right away. Just raise the prices a little...otherwise you may lose your loyal customer base.

First I talked to this guy and in the article he got my last name wrong, and I’m glad.
I told him the same thing many of you touched on here:
If my customers come to my place and order my BBQ they would know in a heart beat if I tried to save money with less expensive ingredients, and they would not come back.

I also told him, that my customers were unfazed by my recent price increase, because they see the grocery store prices increase and understand my business is no different than any other that’s affected by the rising transportation cost, and thus increased food cost.

I have 25 years in radio and should have known better than to talk with a reporter that had, an agenda, but I thought when we got off the phone he understood that a good restaurant or food operation would not gamble his business by saving a few pennies here or there.

Greyghost was right on target when he wrote “Many of our pros are independent owners of small businesses which have a fiercely loyal clientele. I doubt they would endanger their customer base with substitutions. How can one substitute ribs for something else? Cheaper sauce, maybe but I do not think anyone would endanger their signature product and loyal clientele for such a switch”.

To bad he didn’t print your quote Greyghost.
Jack

Reporters never write about anything good. They live for controversy. They live for negativity.
I learned the hard way, myself Dr. Q. I was once responsible for feeding 25,000 kids a day. In this high profile job, at first I willingly spoke to news reporters. Then I learned they wanted to get negative stuff to sell papers.

From the article: "Chuck E. Cheese recently began using a "reformulated" pizza cheese at its 490 restaurants, helping the company cut costs and turn in positive first-quarter earnings. Richard Frank, CEO of parent company CEC Entertainment Inc., said the high-moisture mozzarella blend gives customers a "cheesier product" that spreads better and allows the chain to use less cheese on some pizzas."

anyone surprised?

I have seen high end restaurant add cheaper cuts of meats and less expensive seafood dishes, but not an ingredient switch, like Chuck E. Cheese is pulling. Of course, the clientel for Chuck E. Cheese ain't the same as a high end restaurant.

I started to use tap water to steam my dogs instead of my usual Perrier.
J/K.

I used to be a newspaper reporter in California and I assure you that reporters who approach a story without a bias are as scarse as hen's teeth. When I became assistant editor, I used to beat my reporters over the head every day with an objectivity stick. And, of course, we had to use AP articles for filler in the paper, which ruined the whole thing. When you read an article that's TRULY fair and balanced, be sure to call the newspaper editor and thank them. And, if you can, subscribe to that paper and tell them why you're subscribing.

I've been a reporter for many years, including 13 as an Associated Press reporter and editor. Your assurance doesn't really count for much considering the fact that reporters are human beings and all human beings have biases. It is the good reporter's job to filter out his or her biases when covering a story, and it is the job of the editors to make sure the filter worked. Your suggestion that you "had to use AP articles for filler" and that it "ruined the whole thing" probably went over well with your company, which paid lots of good money to be a member of The Associated Press.

How can you ever ascertain that any article that you read or see or hear is not biased? I find it difficult to tell any story without any bias. Perhaps I am not professional enough but I find it difficult to understand how anyone can.

I try to read as many different articles about the same thing and then form my own opinion, which is fact is probably biased?????

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

How can you ever ascertain that any article that you read or see or hear is not biased?

You can't of course.

Getting back to the main question of subbing ingredients.....I have been a professional chef for over 25 years. I would like to know how anyone could substitute a filet mignon or prime rib? What are you going to use? Soy beans? It's preposterous. If the menu states that your entree comes with roasted butternut squash could you substitute cantalope? How about parsnips for potatoes? Does this sound logical?

Food prices go up and down and they always will. Around 1995 (don't quote me on the date) the rain in CA wiped out the first planting of Romaine. So when the second planting finally came up, romaine went from $10 a case to $50 a case. I didn't substitute anything. I just asked my prep people to clean all the romaine with extreme caution, which they did. My food cost did not go up even 1/2 percent.

Leechef, I think you nailed it. If you get tired of cooking, I sure hope you become a writer for the Associated Press.

I ran a few search words through Google News on this topic, and got something like 130 hits where newspapers and broadcasters put this story on their website. Jman gave us a link to one newspaper, but I found that the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader newspaper edited the story. I believe The Telegraph of Macon, GA ran the full story:
http://www.macon.com/266/story/343520.html

I must have looked at 60 web sites that carried the stories and allowed comments to the story. The only web site I found that had any comments was that of CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company. While the article touched on the wide variety of ways the restaurant industry is coping with the inflationary pressures, it just didn't prove the case that ingredient substitution is rampant.

More articles have been coming out about this sort of thing. I saw one today on AOL of all places. I thought it was a pretty good article and much better than the AP Reporter one...but then again he was on a deadline. I do not think you have to be an AOL member for this link, but I am not really sure. Let's give it a shot anyway:

http://www.walletpop.com/2008/05/15/sneaky-restaurant-tricks-ten-to-watch-out-for

Give me feedback.

I was able to read the AOL article. I have also seen story on this subject on local TV newscasts in the last few days. These pieces have noted some portion size reduction, as well as above-board changes made to the menu. The AOL article notes a number of waste-reduction and pencil-sharpening initiatives that would probably not have taken place in boom times.