Attending the Nicholas & Co. Food Show is like Disneyland for foodies.

Last week, thousands of restaurateurs and food-service providers fanned through the aisles of vendors at the South Towne Expo Center, sampling everything from chocolate to cheese, turkey to tacos, cake to calamari.

Toothpick heaven!

I was happy to see some of "Utah's Own" products represented, such as Peggi Whiting's Seal Sama sauces, Shirley J's cream-sauce mixes, Creminelli sausages and artisan cheeses from Beehive, Red Rock and Shepherd's Dairy.

But it's a bit disillusioning to realize that so much of the soups, sandwiches, salsas, guacamole and french-fried or mashed potatoes that restaurant-goers assume to be house-made are likely to be pre-fab products, factory-made, shipped and frozen until heated for serving.

For instance, I saw a "panini" that was a pre-made sandwich with grill marks already imposed on the bread. So you can just heat it up without needing a grill … But isn't it the grill that makes it a panini in the first place?

I tried a white chicken chili made by Cobblestone Market, which offers soups both ready-to-use and in an add-water concentrate.

I also enjoyed creamy seafood chowder and savory tortilla chicken soup made by Heinz.

They all tasted perfectly seasoned and were studded with chunks of ingredients.

Heinz's accompanying "Soup Selling Strategies for the Operator" brochure suggested that restaurants can go a step further and add ingredients such as cheese, crab or mushrooms to come up with a "specialty" or "signature" soup.

Sounds like what home cooks do when they toss in a few extras from their cupboard to jazz up a frozen entree.

I found out a few more things from the "Soup Selling Strategies" booklet. For instance:

The soups ordered most often in restaurants are:

Chicken noodle20 percent

Clam chowder10 percent

Tomato11 percent

Vegetable10 percent

French onion8 percent

Cream soups7 percent

Chili7 percent

House specialty7 percent

Minestrone6 percent

Hot & Sour3 percent

Other3 percent

Bean & lentil2 percent

Potato2 percent

The five ingredients that would make people more likely to order soup are:

Mushrooms55.6 percent

Cheeses50.3 percent

Crab46.3 percent

Lobster44.7 percent

Lentils34.8 percent

Some other soup facts:

As people get older, they tend to like soup more. The bulk of soup-consumers fall between ages 25-64.Soup is most appealing to ages 50-65-plus.

The majority of soup consumers are in the upper income bracket. Nearly half of them make $75,000-plus annually.

Although soup consumption peaks in colder months, it's steadily ordered through all four seasons.

Consumers perceive soup as healthy, second only to green salads.

Lunch consumption is on the rise, driven by casual sandwich chains and combo meals.

E-mail: vphillip@desnews.com