Rant: Waffle Abuse

On their Brunch menu, Del Frisco's Grille, like a number of other restaurants, serves Southern Fried Chicken & Waffles. Yesterday, they posted a photo of this dish on their Facebook page. Generally, I'm a big fan of chicken & waffles but this picture disturbed me. It depicted a scene of waffle abuse though they are far from the only perpetrators of this type of abuse. Waffles are not the only victims. Pancakes too get abused in this way.

Listen up chefs! Stop abusing waffles and pancakes by sprinkling powdered sugar on them.    

Powdered sugar, also known as confectioner's sugar, is simply a finely powdered sugar. Cooks dust this sugar on numerous items, from waffles to pancakes , cookies to brownies. It is partially a decoration but also adds sweetness to the food. It is overused and abused. It is added to far too many foods, creating more sweetness than is needed. There is little reason to turn breakfast into dessert.

Many people add sweet syrup to their waffles, pancakes, or French toast so why do they need the added sweetness of powdered sugar? They don't. If you don't want the sweetness of syrup, you may not want the sweetness of powdered sugar either. So it seems silly that powdered sugar is a regular addition to pancakes, French toast or waffles. If anything, it should be optional, not the standard practice.

You should have to ask for it to be added, rather than request that it be deleted. Most menus do not even mention that powdered sugar is added to these items. You don't find out that it will be on your plate until it arrives at your table. So if you don't see it on the menu, you can't assume that it won't be added.

Adding powdered sugar to many dessert items also seems superfluous. It adds more sweetness than is needed for many dishes. Such heavy handedness with powdered sugar seems a cop out, the easiest fix for an amateur chef. If your dessert was perfectly sweetened, then there would be no need for powdered sugar. Your dessert, just like your breakfast items, should be able to stand on their own.

Stop abusing powdered sugar. The waffle you save could be your own.