When you visit Panera, do you expect all their menu items to be freshly prepared?
If the answer is yes, we'll let you in on a little trade secret: Some of Panera's menu
items aren't half as fresh as you think.
You've heard the claims:
"When Panera began, we decided to get up every day and bake fresh bread from fresh dough."
Well, it turns out the crew at Panera really does bake their bread on site, but the dough
reportedly isn't made from scratch on the premises.
Every day, prepared dough is evidently delivered by truck from a source close to the restaurant,
and it may or may not be frozen.
A former employee told Refinery29:
"[The frozen dough came] from a town about an hour away."
If it's any consolation, editors at Refinery29 mentioned that some Panera policies and practices
have changed since that comment was made.
But as recently as 2018, a supposed former Panera manager said something very similar
on Reddit, writing that:
"Dough is sent fresh nightly from a regional facility and baked fresh every night for the
next day."
So… close enough?
Are you sitting down?
Panera's mac and cheese is reportedly prepared by an off-site chef and not inside the actual
restaurant.
In fact, someone claiming to be a Panera employee wrote on Reddit that
"The mac and cheese [...] comes into the store premade and frozen in a bag and it is heated
either in boiling water or the microwave if need be."
Meanwhile, a former Panera employee told Refinery29 that the mac and cheese shows up frozen in,
quote, "individually portioned bags."
Okay, so the pasta isn't made in the kitchen right behind the counter… but c'mon, this
isn't Italy.
"Snap out of it."
After all, in America, most of us are perfectly content buying boxed macaroni with dry noodles
and powdered cheese.
With that in mind, the fact that Panera's mac and cheese isn't made fresh in the kitchen
isn't the biggest deal in the world, is it?
Mmm… soup.
The ultimate comfort food.
"Oh my, this soup's delicious, isn't it…?"
Regardless of what Panera soup is your favorite, it's safe to say it was frozen prior to all
your loud, satisfied slurping.
In a Reddit AMA, someone claiming to be a former Panera employee wrote that
"The soups are made at a factory/plant/etc, flash-frozen, shipped to us, and we thaw it
out in what's called a thermalizer, essentially a soup-thawer."
Another Panera manager wrote on Reddit that
"They have a company that makes the soups and then they get sent frozen."
And speaking to Refinery29, yet another former employee claimed that
"Soup arrived in giant bricks that were heated in a hot water bath in the back of the house."
Brick or no brick, you gotta admit the soup at Panera is delicious… isn't it?
So what if they're not whipping it up from scratch in a giant pot.
It doesn't affect the taste, right?
In a thread complaining about how overpriced Panera is, a Redditor claiming to be a former
manager defended the chain, claiming:
"Panera is overpriced for sure, but their foods have no preservatives and are definitely
higher quality than any other fast foods [...]."
This alleged former worker went on to say that
"Some foods come frozen, but are high quality in terms of ingredient sourcing […]."
So what does that say about Panera sandwiches?
"We hand-slice avocado, pull smoked chicken, bake fresh focaccia, and craft every sandwich
clean from top to bottom."
Panera's sandwich meat may have been frozen at one point, but the sandwiches are allegedly
constructed in house.
Another alleged former Panera employee claims that
"All hot sandwiches at Panera are assembled to order and then pressed on a panini grill."
As for the salads, a lot of the produce reportedly comes in fresh daily, so at least that's somewhat
reassuring.
Isn't it?
In 2017, another former Panera employee spilled some secrets to the MyRecipes website, claiming
that the vast majority of baked goods aren't actually baked on the premises.
This anonymous rabble rouser alleged that:
"A large amount of the bakery products come in frozen and are tossed in the oven when
needed […]. The majority of goods in the bakery case were created elsewhere, shipped
in a freezer, and reheated."
But keep in mind that the name of the restaurant is Panera Bread, not Panera Bakery, so maybe
we should cut the chain some slack.
After all, if Panera's cookie dough is made elsewhere, does that make its cookies any
less delicious?
Not in our book.
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