Jeff Creswell prepares dishes featuring local ingredients for a tasting at Sysco’s test kitchen in Chicago.
Photographer: Jamie Kelter Davis/BloombergInside the Test Kitchens Helping Restaurants Navigate the Trade War
Sysco, the largest US food supplier, is using a group of culinary experts to help customers brainstorm ways to blunt the impact of Trump’s tariffs.
On a recent weekday morning in downtown Chicago, chefs inside a test kitchen prepared a five-course meal featuring tostada verde with jalapeño gouda and trout on focaccia.
The chefs usually cook these spreads to help customers of Sysco Corp., the largest US restaurant supplier, create or tweak menu items. These days, they’re also coaching eateries on substitutes for imported ingredients hit by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. That’s why the gouda cheese came from Wisconsin instead of Europe. So, too, did the fish, which might otherwise have been imported from Asia.