The Secret Behind How Restaurants Choose Their Soup Of The Day

Restaurants typically give you a lot to choose from, but one of the mainstays on many menus is the tried-and-true soup of the day. But for restaurants that have to order ingredients somewhat in advance and prefer predictability on their menus in order to limit waste, the idea of having a daily rotation of soup seems a little superfluous, don't you think? Well, according to someone who knows what goes on behind the scenes of a restaurant kitchen, choosing a soup of the day is a very sensible and calculated move on a restaurant's part.

Chef Randy Feltis of @KatherineWants on TikTok and author of "Katherine Wants: The Ultimate Date Night Cookbook" asserts that many restaurants have a very practical rationale for choosing a soup of the day. "98% of the time, it's a way to use up ingredients," he says. "It might be one ingredient that goes into the creative process, but it always starts with that one ingredient, and you work around with it. For example, smoked salmon can be used in a smoked salmon chowder." With one or two main ingredients in mind, and with a touch of a go-to ingredient for some luxuriant soups, it's actually pretty easy for restaurants to figure out how to choose (and make) their soups of the day.

Regardless of how a certain restaurant might go about sourcing its soup of the day, the question remains whether you should even bother getting it in the first place. After all, how can you predict the quality of a dish that changes every day? According to Randy Feltis, you don't really need to worry much beyond using your very own common sense. In his expert view, the restaurants themselves have a fair bit riding on making a good soup of the day every day. "You want to make it a good soup and the restaurant wants a great reputation so that the soups actually sell," he says.

It should also be noted that there are certain times of day where you'd be better served ordering the soup of the day. In many restaurants, the soup of the day is made during the slower prep hours earlier in the day, so you may be better off ordering this dish during lunch as opposed to a later meal to ensure freshness. Feltis emphasizes this notion and also suggests taking advantage of any potential combo order. "I think it's a smart order when it's a lunch combo like a soup [and] sandwich kind of deal. Or if you like a cream soup or lobster bisque, they'll repurpose it to be something beautiful." With these things in mind, then, these daily soups become a lot less mysterious — and pretty delicious.