Guests eat
with their eyes. As they move through a buffet, they feel special and excited.
As guests—especially if they’ve brought a wedding or bar mitzvah gift—they feel
entitled to as much as they want from the buffet. Few guests are thinking about
conservation or wasting food as they travel down the buffet.
Lines are the
enemy of reducing waste at buffets. Even if a guest is in the line approaching
the buffet for only several minutes, it feels like a lifetime. Guests sometimes
are required to stand in the buffet line for as long as 20 minutes. The longer
a person stands in the slow moving buffet line, the more they are convinced
that they are not going to get back into this slow line later for second
helpings—so they take their second helpings during their first and only trip
through the buffet. Waste is out of control in slow lines.
You can reduce
the angst of people standing in long lines and lessen their need to take away
more than they can eat:
· Serve the seconds. When lines are long, have a
server move past the guests in the line saying to them in a gracious and
professional manner, “The host wishes me to inform you that after you go
through the buffet, our servers will bring seconds to your table for you to
enjoy.”
· Pass appetizers. To calm the guests in line
and to reduce their hunger pangs, have a server move by the line offering small
finger foods.
· Pass plates. When lines are exceptionally
long, like at a corporate picnic, have a server wearing rubber or linen gloves
pass out the plates guests will be using when they finally reach the buffets.
Many guests in long lines, worry about running out of plates before they get
their turn. Their plate is a guarantee that they will get food!
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