Lessening The Amount of Buffet Food Taken - PART TWO

On a dessert buffet, what will be eaten more, chocolate or lemon mousse? Most think the answer is chocolate. This assumes we are talking about a choice between choosing chocolate or lemon, which also assumes that they are sitting next to each other on the buffet. How does the equation change when they are not sitting side-by-side on a dessert buffet? Suppose the chocolate mousse is two feet down an 8-foot buffet table and the lemon mousse is six feet down the same buffet? Now they are two separate desserts. Imagine what would happen in a group of 200 guests if the lemon mousse were sitting next to a flourless chocolate cake? How many of the guests would understand the excitement of placing a dollop of the lemon mousse on top to the chocolate cake? You can see how easy it is to disrupt the logic of determining correct food amounts.

Items that are deemed special to guests, like shrimp, pork ribs and any cut of beef, are most often taken by guests, whether they really want them or not. Even if a woman doesn’t eat beef, she will take it for her husband if it is located on the main buffet. Try moving these special items off the main buffet to a separate station where only those who really wish to eat them will take the time to get them.

Most guests at events have been taught, by parents or experience, that the most expensive menu items are placed at the end of the buffet. If a caterer places a carved beef at the front of the buffet, they are thrown for a loop. If the first item is beef, then what the heck is at the end of the buffet? Americans who come to the end of a buffet to find a carver serving sliced beef will have the carver stack as much as they can get away with on top of the plate already filled with other menu items. Reverse this by putting the carver first on the buffet. If the first thing guests do is fill a portion of their empty plate with sliced beef at the beginning of their buffet trip, they will resist placing anything on top of the beef as they travel down the buffet. Happy guests and less waste are accomplished by preplanning of where foods are placed on the buffet and how they are served.