I thought you might like to see what we think about when we get a customer comment of food preparation -

A customer was shocked, shocked to discover we do not de-stem our fresh spinach leaves when we make a spinach salad.  He let us know that we were total idiots for do this and he failed to understand how we could possibly stay in business which such a practice going on…..

Posted For Staff Meeting Discussion

 REF:  Spinach and Stems

 Regarding the customer comment that we should de-stem the spinach for the fresh spinach salad, I note that we have been serving the spinach salad this way for many years without one comment on the stems. Pro or con.  Given that we have, in fact, had many compliments on the salad and that sales of the salad do not seem to have been affected by the stem or no stem concern.   I think we will leave things alone and monitor the situation for further customer reaction.

 It’s safe to say that, at home, most people probabaly de-stem their spinach for salads.   While at the same time, most people leave the stems on when cooking fresh spinach. 

 We have chosen not to waste the stems on fresh spinach for our salads since we don’t have an active compost pile at this time.  We feel the stems add a texture and a sharper flavor to the fresh spinach which would be wasted if we did de-stem.  We believe that, given the carbon footprint used to get the stems from the farm to the factory to the distributor and then to us, we would be contributing to global climate change if we did not use the stems in some way.

 We take this stand proudly and greenly and call upon the restaurants of the world to make this change in spinach saladry composition.   Come!  Join us as we do our part to change the world!  Unite to stop this waste of human food while thousand are starving in Africa!

 In any case, if the comment comes up again, say, ”Our Chef likes the texture and sharper flavor of the stems.  He thinks it adds a little something different to the salad.”  And report the comment in the Daily Log or at staff meeting.

Jerry