Ban the Buffet!

I have heard yet another bad answer in response to the question I pose every time I attend a function that has some sort of buffet. The question is, "What will be done with the food after the event is over?" The typical response is, "We will throw it away." Well, I got that response at a function I attended Monday night and I wanted to SCREAM! I want to scream in response to the "throw it away" answer due to the amount of life (animals), water, energy, money, labor and other resources that were totally wasted to produce food destined for the dumpster!

As it turns out Americans waste a tremendous amount of food every year. According to a recent NY Times article, "Americans waste...an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption,...and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American." Do the math; that is an incredible amount of food waste.

The time has come to do our part and teach students to set up buffets that have virtually no waste or perhaps eliminate the buffet altogether and encourage them to have servers "pass around the buffet" on a tray and only bring out what the customer actually consumes instead of relying on the same old tired rule of thumb formulas for how "many pieces" or "small plates" should be planned when doing buffets in the event all people were to consume as planned -- which rarely if ever happens. Besides, what is wrong with running out of food? If someone was too lazy to get up their fat _____ up to the buffet or came late to the event and missed out well then they had better be on their toes the next time and get in line if they want to indulge.

So I am appealing to all of you who teach culinary arts and hospitality to rethink what we teach kids about foodservice as it relates to the buffet. We have to STOP WASTING FOOD! So please join me and put an end to this practice altogether or properly manage it too eliminate waste.

Oh, there is one more buffet pet peeve. I was just at one of those name brand celebrity chef restaurants located in a museum in Indy. I will not mention his name but it is the name for the thing hockey players try to hit into the net. Anyway...the staff working for the celebrity chef (who was apparently nowhere on site to manage set-up) set up the buffet with a single service side so it took forever for people to get their lunch while waiting for those ahead to gingerly get their food as though defusing a bomb for goodness sake! Hello! Get an extra pair of tongs for each item on the buffet and run customers down both sides of the table. Aaaaaggghhh!

(Full NY Times piece, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?partner=rssnyt)