You want real maple syrup with those pancakes?
- flickr: jsorbieus
- Real maple syrup comes from a tree, not the cornfield
The interesting thing about researching this week’s Pitch Cafe feature about Kansas City’s finest pancakes was the discovery that most area restaurants, even first-class restaurants like Chaz on the Plaza in the Raphael Hotel, don’t use real maple syrup, but serve maple-flavored corn syrup.
Actually, in defense of Chaz, chef Charles d’Ablaing uses a 50-50 blend of real maple syrup and corn syrup, which tastes very close to the real thing. “The reason that most restaurants don’t offer pure maple syrup,” d’Ablaing says, “is the expense. The costs of pure Vermont maple syrup are now running between $50 to $80 a gallon.”
“You can buy five times as much maple-flavored syrup these days as 1 gallon of pure syrup,” chef Marshall Roth says. “It’s all a matter of economy.”
Interestingly, one of the last restaurants I expected to be serving real maple syrup was suggested by one of the commenters to this week’s story: Commenter Celeste Lindell said Tennessee-based restaurant chain Cracker Barrel serves the real stuff. I was wary, but the manager of the Cracker Barrel at 7920 N.W. Tiffany Springs Pkwy. confirmed that the dining room uses pure maple syrup.
Who knew?
