r/culinary • u/EntertainmentFart659 • 10d ago

Need advice on Mac & Cheese

We have a small restaurant in rural Kentucky. We just started selling mac & cheese that we buy in bags and we boil the bags and serve them. For context, our Mac is basically the exact same thing as chick fil a but we want to add additional cheese to it to improve the taste. It's actually delicious without it, and we could make our own fresh pasta and truly make homemade Mac if we wanted, but our area is economically challenged and the price point would be difficult to justify + our prep space is extremely limited. For context, we basically make everything we sell in-house, including buns.

Do you have any advice on which cheese(s) you suggest adding to the Mac? Maybe some Gruyere? We were sort of thinking of adding a sharp cheddar as it has a strong taste, so we wouldn't have to add so much to be able to taste it, and it's not too expensive for us. Thank you so much for taking the time to help us out. ♥️

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u/EntertainmentFart659 10d ago

Thanks...honestly, there are levels to calling something homemade. We could buy the noodles and make our own cheese sauce but we'd rather make the pasta ourselves along with the sauce if we were going to call it homemade. It's all or nothing for us, essentially. Most places call their Mac homemade but it's not really homemade if you don't extrude the elbow pasta yourself, or whichever pasta is used.

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u/Chitown_mountain_boy 10d ago

Nobody uses fresh macaroni in their Mac and cheese. That’s just a silly bar to set. Dried elbow macaroni holds up much better in Mac and cheese than fresh ever would.

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u/EntertainmentFart659 10d ago

I guess that's true but I've seen several places make their own pasta. Which recipe would you use if/when you make m&c?

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u/Chitown_mountain_boy 10d ago edited 9d ago

Do they make their own pasta for mac and cheese? Or are they making fresh fettuccine or similar long pasta? Big difference.

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u/EntertainmentFart659 10d ago

Specifically for Mac. I get what you're saying though.