Home cooked food on the restaurant menu

[zac510]

My cynicism wouldn't let me realistically think that 'home cooked' food on a restaurant menu is actually cooked in somebody's home, but why on earth do they think that we want it to be?

Really cooked in somebody's home? As in cooked, probably frozen, and then transported to the restaurant and reheated? Or cooked in somebody's home because it's exempt from the food hygiene legislation?

I'd rather the food cooked in the restaurant myself, or at least left with some faint hope that it actually is and not shipped in.

Come up with some other (perhaps original) faux superlatives to descibe your food, please.

[Ritchie335is]

I have wondered about this aswell.
I dont care if it has been "home cooked" I just want it cooked well!
Strange when you think about it, like its a guarantee its going to be good.

[calibrax]

I've only seen "home cooked" on the menu in places like carveries and pub restaurants, usually for things like pies, and it indicates that the pie was made on the premises, as opposed to being bought in from Pukka Pies or Brake Brothers.

[missdiane]

'Home Cooked' on the menu means cooked on site rather than mass produced in a factory.
As I always understood

[Simpo Two]

calibrax said:

it indicates that the pie was made on the premises, as opposed to being bought in from Pukka Pies or Brake Brothers.

This.

For practical purposes 'home' means 'under this roof', not that the food has been cooked in a nearby home and then rushed along the pavement under tinfoil a la Fawlty Towers.

[zac510]

If that's true then it's wrong for either one of these two reasons:
- it's not cooked in someone's home, it's cooked in the restaurant
- it's cooked in a factory and then shipped in so it's junk

Although I might pay extra for the Fawlty Towers scenario

Edited by zac510 on Sunday 12th December 21:46

[missdiane]

zac510 said:

If that's true then it's wrong for either one of these two reasons:
- it's not cooked in someone's home, it's cooked in the restaurant
- it's cooked in a factory and then shipped in so it's junk

Although I might pay extra for the Fawlty Towers scenario

Edited by zac510 on Sunday 12th December 21:46

Don't read it so literally

Trust me, you would rather have something cooked in my work kitchen than in my home kitchen

Edited by missdiane on Sunday 12th December 21:50

[T84]

It means in the restaurant, you tard

[BeeRoad]

calibrax said:

I've only seen "home cooked" on the menu in places like carveries and pub restaurants, usually for things like pies, and it indicates that the pie was made on the premises, as opposed to being bought in from Pukka Pies or Brake Brothers.

I'm afraid not and a common misconception by those not in the trade. The actuality is:

1) 'Home Made' - the food has been 'made' on the premises, ie a pie has been constructed from raw pastry and filling on the premises and then cooked there too.

2) 'Home Cooked' - heat has been added to the food on the premies. Things that count legally as home cooked - adding boiling water to a pot noodle, microwaving a pasty or throwing a frozen pizza under a grill.

That is why you see thousands of places claiming 'home cooked' and hardly any claiming 'home made'.

[zac510]

Thanks BeeRoad. I guess the biggest clue is that it's mostly dingy places that offer 'home cooked' stuff!

[redtwin]

Does my head in. Better to say "hand made" or "made from scratch". A restaurant or pub kitchen is home to no-one except maybe rats or other vermin.

I think Trading Standards should look into this, unless of course it is the resident kitchen rats that are doing the "home" cooking.

[GavGav]

redtwin said:

Does my head in. Better to say "hand made" or "made from scratch". A restaurant or pub kitchen is home to no-one except maybe rats or other vermin.

I think Trading Standards should look into this, unless of course it is the resident kitchen rats that are doing the "home" cooking.

Yeah. My mate had a Cosworth once, he said it "absolutely flew". Imagaine my disappointment when I later found out that it couldn't actually fly. He said that what he meant was that it was really fast.

Some people.