Skip to content
  • Sunday, June 8, 2025
thebeerhousecafe

thebeerhousecafe

World's finest Food

  • Food & Cooking
  • Mexican Food
  • Organic Food
  • Healthy Food
  • Street Food
  • Fast Food
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
  • Home
  • Outsourced onion rings? Why restaurants are no longer making some menu items
Food & Cooking

Outsourced onion rings? Why restaurants are no longer making some menu items

April 11, 2022
Elizabeth W. Jernigan

As the owner of a busy diner in the heart of New York City, Stathis Antonakopoulos prides himself on serving freshly prepared food to a loyal clientele. 

But these days, Antonakopoulos says he’s had to cut some corners to keep his Carnegie Diner & Cafe afloat. A perfect case in point: When it comes to the restaurant’s always-in-demand onion rings, he’s now relying on a frozen product instead of preparing his own. 

Because of supply-chain issues, Antonakopoulos can’t easily source the pre-cut onions he used to use for the dish. And with his limited staffing — like so many restaurant operators across the country, he has struggled to find workers of late — he can’t afford to have a prep cook spend time slicing onions into perfect rings when there are more essential tasks that need to be done. 

Nevertheless, it’s a choice that pains Antonakopoulos. “I really like to make everything from scratch,” he said.

Many restaurant proprietors are facing the very same dilemma. And like Antonakopoulos, they are increasingly turning to pre-made products as a means to get by. 

Buyers Edge Platform, a company that assists food-service operators, analyzed more than $10 billion in purchases by U.S. restaurants over the past six months and found that reliance on those pre-made items is growing across almost all menu categories.

Orders for frozen pre-made soups and soup bases have surged by 54%, according to Buyers Edge, while orders for frozen desserts have jumped 32%.

And what about onion rings? While the Buyers Edge data didn’t get that specific, the company did note that orders for frozen appetizers have increased by 32%. 

The trend also extends to the drink space: Orders for bar mixers are up by 32%, Buyers Edge said. 

Stathis Antonakopoulos, owner of New York City’s Carnegie Diner & Cafe, said he prefers to make everything from scratch, but can no longer afford to do so.


Courtesy Stathis Antonakopoulos

Christina Davie Donahue, president of Buyers Edge Platform, said supply-chain and staffing issues are very much what’s prompting the pre-made boom. “Restaurants are really needing to explore alternatives,” she said.

It’s a trend confirmed by such companies as Sysco
SYY,
+2.26%
and US Foods
USFD,
-0.28%,
two of the biggest suppliers to restaurants. And both companies are capitalizing on it by offering an increasing array of products designed to make things easier for dining establishments. 

US Foods vice president of product development Stacey Kinkaid points to its carne asada steak strips as a recent example. Like many pre-made offerings, the strips are offered with versatility in mind, she said, noting they can be used in everything from fajitas to salads. “They’re one of our most successful items,”  Kinkaid said.

Other factors also come into play with the pre-made boom.

Einav Gefen, a senior vice president with Restaurant Associates, a prominent food-service operator that runs restaurants at museums, stores and other locations throughout the country, says the demand for niche dining options, including gluten-free and vegan ones, puts added pressure on operators. Restaurants can only prepare so many types of food for so many customers, but if they want to be welcoming to all diners, they may have to rely on pre-made items — say, a gluten-free pizza crust — to be able to have those options on hand.

“The asks for customization have grown tenfold” in the past few years, said Gefen. 

Not that pre-made necessarily means the restaurant is just putting a dish in a microwave and then plating it. In many cases, they are using that item as a base for a dish that will be finished in house. It’s part of what’s commonly referred to in the industry as “speed scratch” cooking, a faster way to prepare food but still retain some of the restaurant’s own stamp. 

Victoria Gutierrez, Sysco vice president of merchandising, points to its frozen cauliflower pizza crust, a gluten-free and vegan offering, as an example of something that plays into this “speed scratch” idea. That is, the restaurant may not make the crust, but “they can top it and do whatever they want to keep it exciting.” 

“‘Where do you draw the line? It’s a slippery slope.””


— Megan Brown, chef of Anything At All in New York City

Still, for some restaurant professionals, the idea of taking even the smallest of shortcuts can lead down a dangerous path and, in turn, defy what dining should be all about. 

“Where do you draw the line? It’s a slippery slope,” said Megan Brown, chef of Anything At All, a New York City restaurant that opened last year. Brown added that she tries to have as much made in-house in her restaurant as possible, including the jam that’s offered at breakfast. 

Brown also noted that if she makes an exception, she often sources the products not from a large, corporate-style supplier, but an independent purveyor with a specialty. For example, Brown said she purchases some of her desserts from “a one-woman cake shop out of Brooklyn.”

Of course, the rules for chain restaurants, especially fast-food places, are different than the ones for fine dining or even more casually oriented but independent establishments. A cook is not likely to be slaving over every burger in a chain that sells millions of them on an annual basis. 

But even in fine-dining destinations, there are certain shortcuts generally deemed acceptable. Many such establishments don’t bake their own bread. Desserts are also often outsourced.

“You can’t do it all, that’s for sure,” said Stephen Zagor, a veteran restaurant consultant. 

As for diner owner Stathis Antonakopoulos, he said he can live with the frozen onion rings for now. But he refuses to compromise on many other menu items, be it his house-made cheesecake or ever-popular omelets. Of the latter, he noted that he could save time by using an egg mix, but the taste just isn’t the same. 

So, he goes the more labor-intensive route. “We crack every egg,” he said.

Tags: A Food Affair, A Food Chain, A Food Italy Is Famous For, A Food Web, A Foodborne Illness Is A Disease That, A Foodborne Illness Is A Disease Transmitted, A Foodborne Illness Outbreak Occurs When, A Foods, B Food Dishes, B Food Grade, B Food Items, B Food Logo, B Food Names, B Food Near Me, B Food Rating, B Food Science Co. Ltd, C Food Crush, C Food Names, C Food Rapper, C Food Shack, Food Addiction, Food Allergy, Food Allergy Symptoms, Food Allergy Testing, Food And Drug Administration, Food And Wine, Food Around Me, Food Aversion, Food Bank, Food Bank Of The Rockies, Food Banks Near Me, Food Baskets, Food Bazaar, Food Chain, Food Chain Definition, Food City, Food City Ad, Food City Near Me, Food City Weekly Ad, Food Coloring, Food Court, Food Delivery Near Me, Food Lion, Food Lion Near Me, Food Near Me, Food Near Me Open, Food Network, Food Open Near Me, Food Poisoning, Food Stamps

Post navigation

Appetizers And Snack Recipes
New kitchen to cook up healthy food habits | News
June 2025
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  
« May    
  • May 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • July 2020
  • March 2020
  • Fast Food
  • Food & Cooking
  • Healthy Food
  • Mexican Food
  • Organic Food
  • Street Food
  • Delightful Mocktails: Celebrating Sobriety with Flavor
  • How to Plan a Corporate Catering Menu on a Budget
  • Scoring Big on Flavor: Exploring the Best Pizza Specials and Game Day Deals
  • How Regenerative Farming Differs From Organic Farming: Key Comparisons
  • Ruby Jewelry for the Bohemian Woman: Free-Spirited and Boho

bl

BR

butteragent
bidnesss

BP

backlinkplacement.com

You may Missed

Fast Food

Delightful Mocktails: Celebrating Sobriety with Flavor

May 27, 2025
Elizabeth W. Jernigan
Fast Food

How to Plan a Corporate Catering Menu on a Budget

March 27, 2025
Elizabeth W. Jernigan
Fast Food

Scoring Big on Flavor: Exploring the Best Pizza Specials and Game Day Deals

February 26, 2025
Elizabeth W. Jernigan
Fast Food

How Regenerative Farming Differs From Organic Farming: Key Comparisons

January 28, 2025
Elizabeth W. Jernigan
Copyright © 2025 thebeerhousecafe
Theme by: Theme Horse
Proudly Powered by: WordPress

WhatsApp us