Panera Bread is under fire after an employee “exposed” how they make and assemble the restaurant’s popular mac and cheese dish.
The viral video posted on TikTok shows the food comes pre-packaged, frozen and is “cooked” in hot water, lastly, it’s cut open then served.
Many are shocked when in reality, they shouldn’t be. When anyone chooses to go out to eat, the food often is not all cooked in house.
The mac and cheese is just the tip of the iceberg. Popular food chains have premade everything, from soups to desserts.
Unless it’s In-N-Out, it’s not fresh.
If you’re looking for the freshest food, restaurant workers can sometimes give you hints. If it can’t be removed, it’s premade. If it’s a mass-ordered dessert, it can be guaranteed that the only reason there is a wait is because there is only one microwave.
Other examples are if the menu is huge with tons of options, the food is probably premade. By the same logic, if you get your meal within a fast window on a busy night, it was likely pre-prepared.
There isn’t a culinary chef making every single dish, a huge pot of soup or even that “fresh” cake, half the time it’s ran through an oven to warm.
Even though that sounds inconvenient, having premade food does benefit everyone from cooks to expediters all the way to the guest waiting at the table.
The less time it takes for food to be done, the quicker it can be consumed.
“It does ease workload in the kitchen only because you don’t have to take the time to cook it. Especially if the item takes a long time. I feel it’s good at certain places and it depends what the food is,” said Culinary Delta student Kiarra Foster.
