# Same old Sysco....some things never change....



## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Wanted to share this with you.....

I was on Mackinac island here in Michigan  last week for a Sysco food show. They have this new line of seafood called "Sea-to-table where you can purchase multiple species of seafood or fish from docks on both sides of the USA and have it delivered within hours of catching right to your door. It's billed through Sysco but is delivered separately.

I thought....cool...I'll put an order together. I ordered Pacific Salmon (15#) and Sable Cod (10#) from Washington state on Monday of this week. My sales rep tells me Alaska can not confirm that the Sable cod would be available. OK with that, so I order line cod instead. Next day....low and behold my Sable cod IS in and will be delivered on Thursday. COOL!!!

Thursday comes and goes and no delivery. WTF

I call my rep and she tells me that the fish will come via FedEx or UPS on Friday.

Friday came and went with no fish on either the UPS or FedEx deliveries. (They come to the island twice a day too.)
I am just about to call the rep from Sea to table when some guy from Grand Rapids calls to apologize. "Harrison" told me that there was problems in Memphis and that's why my fish was delayed, but they wanted to make good on their first Drummond Island sale, so they are shipping the fish out this morning by small airplane which will land at out airport here on the island, where my salesgirl will pick up the fish and deliver it to me.

You know I'm going to be all over that box of fish, temping it, smelling it checking it all out.... with a very skeptical eye.

To me that fish is now 4-5 days old.......so this should be interesting. I await the plane........Ze plane ze plane.....this ain't no fantasy island........

Delivering to remote rural areas is something the Sysco people have as yet to figure out how to do better. 14 years here and they still haven't got a clue.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it... Ciao


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## curtispnw (Feb 16, 2012)

Chef Ross

I live near Seattle, and I can't even trust Sysco to deliver fresh fish to me, I like Sysco, they do a great job with produce and groceries, but my best luck with fish is a company called Pacific Seafood, you can keep fresh fish for a full week after it is delivered, They might be able to ship to Michigan, they have a web site, check it out.


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## rbandu (Apr 30, 2012)

If it sounds too good to be true...

I've never trusted Sysco with that kind of thing.  I'm kind of fortunate, in that my (current) sales rep has that "anything I can do for you" attitude but I still always turn to another purveyor for my meats and fish.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Well.....I have to tell you all that the box finally arrived at around 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday.

The fish were just fine....in fact they were still so cold I had to stop cleaning and pin boning every few minutes to let my hands warm up.

The issue was not with Sysco but with this sea to table company. The billing goes through the Sysco system but the other company does all the leg work. I was pleasantly surprised.


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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

Two days late might be better than never but it would be a real disaster for a lot of functions. The good news is if you ever do a function you  have some nice local fish purveyors where you are. If you need any vendor input in that regard just drop me a PM. Glad it worked out in te end. What did you do with the Cod?

Dave


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

The cod had beautiful markings on them. It was almost a shame to filet them. I filet, portioned, wrapped, vacuum sealed and froze them for later use. same with the salmon, although I did dig out the cheeks, scraped the bones of all the flesh for tartar, then planted what was left in my garden as compost.


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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

Have you ever ordered from Honolulu fish?

http://www.honolulufish.com/fresh-fish/


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## coastalwanderer (Apr 21, 2012)

I know that this is an old threat but Honalulu Fish ships via Sysco's "Sea to Table" program. I've dealt with them before. Honestly I avoid them like the plague. The few times I ordered from them a day later I'd get a call from their sales guy in Honalulu telling me they over sold what they have and would mako be acceptable instead. LOLI swear they have a shark fetish.


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

Sysco gets upset when they clue you in on Honolulu fish, and then you decide to contact them directly, cutting out the sysco middleman, but I've had more consistent results doing it that way. You get to talk to someone more knowledgable than your sysco rep too.


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## chefhow (Oct 16, 2008)

I used to order from Honolulu all the time when I was in Texas.  Great company, never had a problem and they had a huge selection.


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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

I never had any problems with Honolulu fish but I never ordered via Sysco.

Just got done processing several Yellowfin Tuna we caught off the OBX.  No big eyes this time although we had one crash the spreader bar twice and had a brief battle with a 400# Blue Marlin.

Dave


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## coastalwanderer (Apr 21, 2012)

I guess maybe its sysco. I'm from the gulf coast of florida grew up with seafood and good fish so one of my strong points here in Wisconsin is knowing seafood better than the next guy. I'lll try contacting Hon Fish directly.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

A few words about Sysco. First they are basicaly a grocery house , thats how they started and thats what they know. Their  ventre into meats came when they purchased Buckhead Meats in Georgia. They  are learning the meat business. Their produce came when they purchased Fresh Pointe in Florida, they do a fairly good job here.  Their biggest problems are their own sales reps. Most of them know as much about meats as my 2 cats, aand it seems they don't want to learn it. They are simply order taker and, you had better know what cuts to order and what trim you want, cause they don't have a clue. I have never ordered fresh fish from them because it seems they act only as middleman and know nothing about the product . All of their fish in the past was frozen block or IQF. Most of it came from the far eastern area, and many people are a bit leary of this...

  I just came back from a cruise this past week and again as many times before gone thru the kitchen areas with the Chef. It used to be all seafood put aboard the ship had to be frozen for 72 hours prior. This now applies to all poultry and meat brought aboard. This is mandated by the USDA for cruise lines.  Down the line iI believe these rules will apply to supermarkets as well .This could be a good thing or bad depending on the source of the product and its inspection policies


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## cyclechef (Jan 22, 2008)

love honolulu fish company. Used them for two years at a previous position.


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