People who want military grade clearly have never been in the military. Military grade is "As cheap as possible for something that generally works most of the time." Not what I would pay a premium for.
Military Grade: cheap enough to buy, build & maintain; maintenance done by trained 13 yr olds who read 1/3 of the manual, out of order, skipping sections. It must survive handling by squad of Marines who have nothing to do… but still simple enough for them to operate it with out hurting themselves.
Edit PS
Oh back to the cheap part.. if they do break it, that’s why it’s cheap… we have 6 more. Stuff get’s blown up in war.
The old adage: “You put a Marine in a locked rubber room with an anvil and a rubber ball, and come back an hour later, the anvil will be broken and the rubber ball nowhere to be found”.
Bingo. Don't get me wrong, real military grade at military grade prices I'm down for. Some stuff needs to just work, be fixable with some duct tape until I can replace it, and cheap enough I'm not pissed to replace it.
But if I'm paying a premium I'm getting quality, not that!
Someone drove my (I was on a different detail that day) lmtv through a narrow ravine in the woods. Somehow they managed to slice off all 3 valves of the air tanks for the brakes by clipping a tree. I then received a picture of 3 screw drivers they shoved in to seal the air. Luckily someone actually stepped in to stop them from trying to drive.
The duct tape we got from supply wouldn't even stick to it's own sticky side. We had to special order it from a local manufacturer. Lucky for them, they got a government contract out of it.
A more realistic perspective is that 'military grade' can mean barely usable, but if there was not a military spec the low bidder would be delivering something not even usable.
Cream? I thought the cookie had been plated before the globs of mac n' cheese and cole slaw, and at least maybe the cheese/sauce was nice and gooey/moist.
I certainly took pride in the butter fried steaks i used to make. I thought just because people drive trucks shouldn't mean they'll settle for something like on OPs pic. The management had other ideas which is why I'm no longer truck stop chef
Oh yeah its huge. I drive regionally for construction work, and have a list of stops with the best food. Recommend them to anyone that asks, and will gladly drive 10min out of my way to go to one.
The restaurants in my town are usually service by Sysco or GFS, and our restaurants and even food trucks are a hell of a lot more better than this crap.
This is straight up lazy and knowing that you're gonna make money off of it anyways
Sysco stuff can be good, just depends on prep. In the cafeteria at the college I went to, they had a burger grill. There was one particular guy, his name was Terrence, could make some awesome burgers from the Sysco crap they gave him. Most of the rest of the people there made bland burgers that were not worth waiting for.
Most restaurants get their food from the same big food distributors. People are silly if they think every restaurant can locally/direct source. Thats a luxury that takes time that most places won't dedicate.
I dont even tell people im a chef anymore cause it doesnt mean much until its proven anyways. Ive met plenty of peoplecalling themselves chefs because they can follow a recipe or two, they do things like this at an event and never get called again.
Same people using ai to make their graphics and menus cause their real food is not photographic.
I didn’t get VIP so they charged me $60 for a corndog, a gyro, and fries. And then had the audacity to put ranch dressing on the gyro and call it “taziki sauce”
Furnace fest in Birmingham Alabama was saved from bankruptcy by Peachtree this past year, they made the festival more mainstream and increased the number of tickets sold by 4x. Increased the fees that vendors had to pay drastically causing a lot of fan favorites to not participate in the fest because it didn't make sense financially. They aren't allowing bands to sell their own merch, getting rid of merch alley, which was one of my favorite things about the fest.
I go to concerts all the time that are excellent and affordable. Go to good local/regional acts at good local owned venues. Skip the big names coming to the Global Bank Epstein Fanduel Ticketmaster Arena.
Go see your orchestras people! They are often cheap and they do a lot of stuff to keep the classical musical arts alive. See if they do a movie night where they play the soundtrack to classica like OG Jurassic Park or Superman! See if they're doing a show of Video Game OSTs! Show support for the hardworking orchestral players who are also great musical talents and often results of the arts programs those same Epstein Bank Fanduel billionares want eliminated!
Boy do I have a surprise for you! Fun fact, Live Nation, owned by those pieces of shit at Ticket Master, has a monopoly on live entertainment. This is killing small local venues that do not sign agreements with Live Nation. If you own a venue and don't have a deal with Live Nation, an insane amount of acts can't play your venue. Think anyone signed to a decent sized label that can support touring acts.
Live Nation has a "fully integrated" model that can "help" businesses earn "more" money. Which consists of their corporate alcohol and non-alcoholic beverage contracted suppliers, with new value and incredible selection for significant price increases. They'll help you market/promote shows and everything in-between.
So if you've been at a show lately or worse yet, if you wonder why acts that used to play your favorite local small venue. It's all but certain that your venue doesn't have an agreement with Live Nation.
I know this is a fact, you can see plenty of info online about these shitbags and their monopoly. My favorite venue in the whole world is the world famous, Machine Shop, in Flint Michigan. They've hosted all manner of amazing rock and metal bands over the last nearly 20 years.
But those cunts at Live Nation started to tighten the screws. The acts that used to play there all the time, many signed to major labels, can no longer play there. It is not because they do not. Kevin, the owner, is loved by the entire rock/metal world.
That's probably why they said to go to small, locally owned venues that book more local and regional music, and the occasional touring band that isn't under some contract to tour with Live Nation. I lived in New Orleans, and while Tipitina's and House of Blues sold out to Live Nation, The Maple Leaf is $10 at the door.
Years ago, Pearl Jam, who were a very big actor at the time, tried to do a tour without Ticketmaster, who screwed both fans and artists with their "convenience fees" and near-monopoly. They had to play racetracks and carnival grounds because so many venues were in the cartel, and it's only gotten worse since then.
I remember them trying to take them on. The messed up part is that Biden's administration was finally going to do something. The Trump administration took a bribe and all is well now. They can keep on stealing from us.
It all loops back to politics - the current federal govt doesn't care at all about enforcing anti-trust when this is a textbook example of anti-competitive practices
those VIP upgrades are always bullshit, i did it for this band’s reunion show promising special VIP area including open bar and food, we were given 1 drink ticket each, there was no food and the view and sound from the VIP was shit so we ended up going back to general admission area
It's just dumb. I get it, money is in the pocket but either provide nothing or make an effort. Of course people will complain when you pull this kind of bullshit. And it's absurd, I read elsewhere OP paid 709 USD for a ticket and you serve him 5 USD food? I'm sure OP isn't expecting a surf and turf, but is it so much to ask to for example provide a nice pulled pork sandwich or a cuban? No clue how many VIP's there are, but for that kind of money one should deliver more. And again, if not, than don't do anything? Nobody would have batted an eye if they were 709 USD for very nice seats, but when you say "chefs food included" you better deliver.
By "chef prepared" they mean they sent a guy who worked in a restaurant kitchen one summer to pick up pre-packaged food from the deli section at Albertsons.
Idk depends on the music fest I guess. I went to Bourbon and Beyond in 2023 and the VIP section was all you could eat and drink all day and the food wasn’t bad at all. They had tables of options and they switched it out every few hours with new food throughout the day. We did VIP Jazz Fest this year and all VIP got was bags of chips and apples.
Furnace Fest but I don't want to sully the name because the years prior to this one were absolutely amazing. However last year left it in debt and the previous owners had no choice but to sell it and it got bought by a company that has previously booked Kid Rock tours to give an idea of the vibe shift.
No offense, but the festival you know is gone once it was sold to people looking to make a profit. Name and shame this stuff, I had to scroll way to far.
Nathan Baugh, CEO of Peachtree Entertainment (the rumored owner of Furnace Fest) has both linkedin and instagram accounts. Worth considering to tag him.
In america, you need 1000 hours experience to cut hair legally, but to touch and cook and sell food, there's a course you can take in about 2 hours on line. Pretty strange but that's a big part of why we're at where we are w food in this country currently, imo
fwiw there are certifications needed for selling in restaurants and food trucks, plus ongoing inspections, so there are additional requirements for safety, and no that isn't a big part of where we are with food in this country (outbreaks you're hearing about in the news 99% of the time at a much higher level than what's going on inside restaurants).
But yeah there are no requirements that your food actually has to be taste good and be fresh (as in not frozen or canned) for you to call yourself a chef
Back in my younger days, I used to go to the warped tour. Water was $2.50 per bottle, and the venue set the prices (this was early 2000s when that was a ridiculous price, even for events). Conveniently, all of the public water fountains were "out of order" the day of the event; typically a sweltering, sunny summer day.
VIP came with access to the only working water fountains. In the summer sun and heat. I pondered VIP multiple times, just for the water.
The original Chef Boyardee ran a reservation-only restaurant and was well-acclaimed. The story of Chef Gusteau in Ratatouille, where after his passing, they attempt to use his name on cheap grocery store brands, was based on what happened to Boyardee’s name and reputation. Granted, this happened during Ettore Boiardi’s own lifetime, and he sold his name and likeness for food products to help keep the jobs of those who worked for him (they hired a lot of extra people during World War II to help cook military rations, but those same people were at risk of losing their jobs when the war ended; the sale was to end military control over Chef Boyardee and to a company that would keep all those newer employees).
Yeah, people slag off Boiardi, but from everything I can see he was a great guy.
He even got awards because of the military rations thing, since it allowed decent ready-made meals to be supplied to Allied troops which not only fed them but helped with morale.
And then after the war the premade foods were a great thing to have around for all the insanely busy and poor folks as world tried to rebuild itself.
Boiardi himself just retired to a farm to grow tomatoes if I recall correctly.
Sounds like a great guy, and the reason why as great as Ratatouille is, I always feel a little sad when they use his name as a bad thing.
I've been to raves in the woods, where one of the food vendors was literally named "What the fuck, it's a buck", and their food was way better than this abomination. I couldn't be high enough for this to look appetizing.
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u/stickied 6d ago
They didn't say the chef was a good chef