I can’t believe what just happened to me…I am the biggest grande supporter, love the product, company, and everything about em…I must confess, as much a pro as i am, I just lost the taste test. My sysco rep just came here with the head guy of my sysco distributer and told me that sysco in new york is now marketing themselves to all pizza places, dropping their prices on things such as stanislaus, crumbled sausage, pizza topping bacon, and many other pizza related things…I’m so hesitant to switch but could this cheese really be as good??
This happened to me once. One thing I can say is that even the lowest of the low is entitled to a good day. I switched briefly a few year ago and it was a big mistake. On a Saturday night the cheese I switched to was absolutely horrible, I had to get 3 cases from a friend’s shop to get me through the weekend. Sysco is terrible for pizza shops, they have tons of private label crap that changes packers more often than you change your underwear! That is just my opinion. You mentioned dropping prices to get your business-----classic bait n’ switch.
I am not familiar with Saputo, but one of the characteristics of poor cheese is its inconsistencies. Sometimes it oils out easy, sometimes there is more anti-caking agents than others, taste can be off etc . . .
Sysco is not dropping prices for a specific food segment. Ask any Sysco rep anywhere and they will tell you what you heard. If you go with them, watch your invoices. There will be many what they call “wrote up the wrong code” errors that cause you to get higher prices. The reps are like car salesman. They will tell you what they want you to hear.
It doesn’t mean you can’t make it work with Sysco, many do, but you have to be on the ball. Just don’t fall for these kinds of stories.
Saputo has been described here a couple of times as having product that compares to Grande. They are a high end label that has a great line of cheeses . . . they also have an economy line, I think under a different label, though.
I use their part-skim mozz and provolone 50/50 blend (distributed under the USFoods Roseli label). I have found it exceptional in my oven. The quality doesn’t waiver so much. It bakes consistently week in and week out, depending on the age of the cheese I have. After 50 days or so age, it gets a little oily in my oven. That seldom happens.
I found when I was with Sysco 4 years ago that their “house” labels changed somewhat frequently for my taste, and with no announcement at all. I have found that USFoods has a more stable contracting . . . and I have learned to ask periodically (on key items) if the contract has been reissued to a new manufacturer. I do it sometimes by asking for specification sheets on the cheese to be sure it hasn’t changed.
I’m not too impressed with Roseli (saputo). In a deck oven the product burns so I would be surprised to see it perform in a conveyor oven. It was pretty bland too. I know that my rep indicated that as many as 3 or 4 manufacturers can be authorized to produce private label at one time!
wow I cant believe I saw this thread, I was coming to post something about this
yesterday we were on the local news, they were just filming from a location and doing morning chatter
we all had to come in early they filmed at 7am and we open at 11 (yes we had a blow out day, I didnt have 5 minutes to myself all day) any way Sysco had been hounding my to try there Saputo gold and told me they would bring me a bad.
so since I had all my friend and family after fox news left I made pizzas and everyone (about 30 people) tried the taste test, almost every single person agreed that the grande was WAY better
yes know one but me knew which pizza was which and I even tried to trick them on a few tables I put 2 grande and 2 others I put 2 saputos
I use MM as well and you could SEE the difference, I thought I would be the last guy to switch to grande, price is way up there but I just feel now i would be compromising my product and we are getting really great reviews
I used to be a Grande user as well. I did a blind taste test of Lugano (made by Saputo) whole milk mozzarella diced cheese along with my employees and some family. Honestly, no one could tell the difference between the two. For some reason my supplier stopped carrying Lugano so I switched to Dragone whole milk mozzarella which is also made by Saputo. It tastes almost identical as well. I stopped using Grande almost 3 years ago and have never regretted it. Don’t get me wrong, Grande makes an awesome cheese but it is really pricey. By finding a cheese that tastes the same as Grande at a fraction of the cost, it was a no brainer to make the switch. I have never once had any one complain or ask if we had switched cheeses. Both Lugano and Dragone have been very consistent with out any problems. My only gripe is that my supplier only carries shredded Dragone and not diced (which I prefer).
Try this; Get a few cases of the Saputo cheese and take it for a test drive to see how it performs in YOUR operation. Every store is different. The two things to watch for are oiling out and color development. This is assuming the cheese has already passed your taste test.
Don’t make the switch until you are confident in the performance of the new cheese. I’ve been in stores where an alternative cheese was under study for weeks or even months before any changes were made. Performance and consistency is the name of the game and it generally takes a little time to sort these attributes out.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
In my experiences…Grande was good, but also cost prohibitive. Saputo was good but not readily available in my market… I have been using Burnett from U.S. Foods. I have found their products to be wonderful. It has the best of all things for me. It has great flavor, is easily obyained, and done so at a pice that I can live with. Anyone still looking for that great cheese should give Burnett a try. It gives me the Grande flavor for about 40 cents less per pound in my market. Good luck and happy baking.