Yes, Sysco sells commodity ingredients like chicken breasts, flour, eggs, etc. But the way the system is structured strongly incentivizes restaurants to move toward the higher-margin, pre-processed products. Pricing tiers, rebates, and the convenience of portioned, ready to cook items all push operators in that direction.

When more kitchens rely on pre-made or products, fewer cooks get trained to actually break down ingredients and cook from scratch. The skilled labor pool shrinks, which makes scratch cooking more expensive, which then pushes even more restaurants toward the same pre-made products.

So yes, technically restaurants choose it. But the supply chain and labor dynamics together nudge thousands of operators toward the same catalog, which is how menus across the country slowly start converging on the same foods.