Originally Posted by
jspira
This is one of those threads which keeps me coming back to FT.
I am surprised, however, that no one has brought up the fact that one has little control over salt content and other additives when dining out. I´m very careful about my use of salt and fat, for example - but many restaurants make up for a lack of technique and/or flavor by overusing such items. This is one of several reasons I truly enjoy dining and cooking at home.
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"Super Size Me" was about eating at McDonalds, but the same applies to any commercially prepared food, including the finest haute cuisine. It is simple unhealthy to eat daily! For lots of reasons. Flavour is punched up using salt and butter at the best restaurants, and with MSG, saturated fats and worse additives at most restaurants. Lots of preservatives are added (thankfully so, otherwise it would be life threatening to eat at many places!).
At home you can control these, and in some parts of the world you can source high quality ingredients. Great progress has been made in that respect in the past decade; so it is possible to prepare food that is tastier and healthier at home than any restaurant can. For example I use free-range eggs now, because the taste is so much better than cage eggs. Meat that is "heart smart" is also available in some countries (though the US lags in that!), and it is both leaner and tastier ... as well as hormone and antibiotic free. Cost is far less than restaurant food, yet better in every way. Of course restaurants could use such ingredients and cook that way; a few do, but most find it is not commercially viable except at the high end.