While eating some deliciously ripe canteloupe today from home, I was pondering why every caterer in every city serves unripe canteloupe and honeydew melon when asked to provide fruit for breakfast.
Every time.
I have come to the conclusion it is not even possible. It is technically infeasible. Cannot be planned for or executed. It is beyond the realm of human endeavor. The problem is insoluble. Fruit cannot be acquired in advance and ripened. Even high-end caterers working with relatively large budgets. And donât get me started on those hard pineapple chunks, and sour blueberries and sour strawberriesâŚ
Sure, at home we can plan for it and execute. But outside the home, it is asking for a technical achievement the likes of which will never be seen in our lifetime.
The hard pineapple chunks are the worst. Getting a melon properly ripened and then eaten before it gets past prime is hard enough to do at home so I can see why it is hard to pull off on a commercial level. On a recent Alaska Airlines flight my husband pre-ordered a fruit plate. I ordered an overnight oat thing because I did not trust a fruit plate. When husbands fruit plate showed up, I was surprised by how nice it looked. It was mostly sliced citrus with some apple and berries. What he generously shared with me was very good.
You illustrate a good point. SEASONALITY vs popularity. Citrus, apples, bananas, blueberries are usually quite decent at point of purchase. Cantaloupe and other melons, infrequently.
I think frozen melons and berries come in large industrial bags to restaurants and are thawed out. Iâve never had much luck with frozen fruit. Bananas and apple are then added to the mix.
Even when canteloupe and honeydew are in season and easy to ripen with just a couple of day on the counter, the catering bowl is filled with unripe fruit.
The next thing is I am not sure there is much of a choice. Every caterer offers the same fruit mix, like they all had to or theyâd break an unwritten law. I have yet to see the apple, banana, berry bowl. No, itâs always canteloupe and honeydew supplemented with a splash of color from pineapple, blueberry, and strawberry.
I despise cantaloupe and honeydew melon. I am that person who uses the tongs to carefully pull out just the blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries from the buffet tray of fruit salad. I spent a lot of years traveling to conferences for work; Iâm glad I never have to face that breakfast buffet again.
Itâs also why most fruit bowls or platters do not have things like watermelons. Plus, ripe melons tend to âweepâ and have a tendency to share to ripe juices with other fruits. In other words, they donât play well with others.
I gauge my melon buying and am successful. I skip âfresh fruit bowlsâ when eating out.
My biggest gripe is when I order anything with âfresh avocadoâ as in, sliced or cubed. Yes it is fresh, (but not ripe!) but Iâm likely to bust a tooth on it, it is so hard. Why do they do that? I always send it back and get something else to replace it.
A lot of our produce is picked before itâs ripe, then held in cold storage until theyâre ready to sell, maybe months later. At that time, the produce is blasted with ethylene which forces it finish ripening. The melon is artificially ripened but to a specified degree based on what they want. Iâm guessing they under-ripen it for this reason:
This Sysco Foods marketing video touts a fruit salad with melons that comes in 8- and 14-lb. pails with a strainer lid for easy draining, a natural âhand-cutâ look, no preservatives, and an 18 day shelf life.
I assume keeping a cut melon without preservatives for 18 day requires starting with something fairly firm. Good news: If itâs hard and tasteless, itâs probably on Day 1 or 2. It would be softer on Day 18âŚ
I donât get the reason Costco refrigerates the big bins of 'cados everynight and bring them out for the shoppers everyday. They are super under ripe and the repeated refrigeration/warehouse is a recipe for disaster. The avocados start rotting as soon as you get them home, never properly getting to ripen.
