[News] The Great Carvery Debate

[timbha]

Why should he? The notice was quite clear that if people took the piss, they would be charged extra. He also made it clear his reasoning for the extra charging policy was to limit foodwaste not to make money. He even offered foil so people can take meat waste home to eat.


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The Landlord has got widespread support and with very good reason imo;

• About a 1/3 of all food produced globally is lost in the process of getting to our table in the first place. Through over-production (food expires) or rejection because it doesn’t look ‘right’ etc. Good edible food wasted.
• Some people think excessive foodwaste is morally wrong on those who toil with hard labour to ensure we are fed
• Of the 263 million tonnes of meat produced every year globally, a fifth (53 million tonnes) is wasted – that's equivalent to 75 million cows.
• What we waste at home makes up almost 50% of the UK‘s total food waste - We grow, manufacture and buy more food than we need resulting in huge environmental impacts (from landfills to monoculture from mass produced foods/intensive farming)
• Obesity is an global epidemic - harmful to human health and harmful to healthcare provision services
• It is fundamentally unjust that piles of uneaten food on people’s plates are chucked in the bin while some people simply can’t afford to eat.

You could be describing the buffet on cruise ships, although at least the food gets recycled in the sea.

It’s greed.

 

[WATFORD zero]

In the last few years I've been on 'all inclusive' holidays twice and had two very different experiences regarding wastage. At one, people went up many times, coming back with small servings of a couple of things, sat down, ate them and then repeated.

At the other, I saw plates being piled high bought back, a couple of things eaten and then the remains being taken away. The same people would then go up and repeat the pile high process for the next course with similar wastage.

At both, it was people of various different nationalities but the main difference was that the first was an adults only place (no, not THAT sort of place) and the second was full of youngsters and kids. From my limited experience it seems to be younger people who were less concerned about wastage. I'll now duck as the Boomer insults fly

Oh and team Landlord.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

You could be describing the buffet on cruise ships, although at least the food gets recycled in the sea.

It’s greed.

Oh god. This reminds me. A good friend works in the cruise industry and he was driving down to Southampton for a tour of one of these huge Royal Caribbean ships which look more like a tower block than a ship and have dinner with the captain. I was intrigued by the sheer size of this boat and what it’s like on board and quite fancied a midweek dinner at the captain’s table; I managed to invite myself along.

Now, I had this idea of lots of polished brass, lots of vanished wood and lots of posh elderly people. The ship itself wasn’t anything like this. It was also change over day so no passengers on board either….. yet.

We ended a very nice day with a nice dinner with the captain when these double doors were pulled open. What then followed was around a hundred people, some in football shirts, racing to the buffet area, throwing down jumpers and cardigans and bagging tables and then piling plates as high as they could. Cruise ships are quite different in films.

 

[The Clamp]

Oh god. This reminds me. A good friend works in the cruise industry and he was driving down to Southampton for a tour of one of these huge Royal Caribbean ships which look more like a tower block than a ship and have dinner with the captain. I was intrigued by the sheer size of this boat and what it’s like on board and quite fancied a midweek dinner at the captain’s table; I managed to invite myself along.

Now, I had this idea of lots of polished brass, lots of vanished wood and lots of posh elderly people. The ship itself wasn’t anything like this. It was also change over day so no passengers on board either….. yet.

We ended a very nice day with a nice dinner with the captain when these double doors were pulled open. What then followed was around a hundred people, some in football shirts, racing to the buffet area, throwing down jumpers and cardigans and bagging tables and then piling plates as high as they could. Cruise ships are quite different in films.

This is the problem with anything nice isn’t, eventually the commoners find their way in .

Sensible people. People with a sense of decorum allow themselves a taste of a few items.

We don’t need to eat an entire watermelon followed by 3 sausages, hams, eggs, four bowls of sugary cereal, bread rolls slathered in marge, gallons of pop, waffles, hash browns, toast and jam, chips, beans, and slabs of cheese. All spilled over the table like it’s Yogi bear’s birthday.

A taste of this . A sip of that. A nibble of the other. Preferably taken in silence. The odd “tut” from behind father’s copy of the times. But otherwise, shhh.

 

[The Clamp]

It’s mainly retired Northerners on cruises isn’t?

 

[BN9 BHA]

I eat meat and don’t visit them.

For only £18 I can go to Wild Lemon and get just the right amount of food served by friendly staff in a lovely environment.

And they bring food to your table. One doesn’t have to go and stand in a queue with a plate in your hand. Like a bastard.

All you can eat or a carvery wouldn’t be my choice. I can get out of invites if any family or friends ever asked me to go.
Like yourself I prefer eating in a better environment

 

[dsr-burnley]

The customers paid the £12. What's the problem if it's in the belly or in the bin? If the Landlord is thinking I could have sold the food they wasted to another customer then he needs to stop the all you can eat buffet and then the problem is solved.

You're assuming that no-one else is involved apart from the landlord and these two customers. If you expand the horizon a little and think of the next customer along, who would like an "all you can eat buffet" but can't have one, then has the problem been truly solved?

One advantage of all-you-can-eat is that you can have whatever veg in whatever quantity you want. Obviously the same effect could be had by the waiter taking a very detailed order of how much of each veg each customer wants, but it would be a lot less efficient in staff and would put the price up.

Of course, that would please the uber-snobs who can't bear the idea of eating with poor people!

 

[jcdenton08]

I had a similar experience once at that all-you-can-eat chinese buffet West Street (I think its gone now). I too am a fan of the crispy duck with pancakes and hoi-sin sauce - as was, it seems, almost the entire restaurant.

When I got there, the duck tub (for want of a better word) was empty. So, mildly disgruntled, I got some other stuff and mooched back to my seat. Then a waiter came out of the kitchen door with a NEW tub of duck, and it was like the Pied Piper of Beijing. About a dozen diners immediately sprang up, and followed him in a line round the restaurant till he deposited it under the hot lamps. The tension was quite palpable as the line of people waited in turn to fill their plates. The muttering / dirty looks at those who were 'filling their boots' made for quite a fraught atmosphere.

This and the fact we were all sat along BENCHES around big long tables made it an experience to forget. No wonder its gone now.

That’s the thing. The duck pancakes and such are loss leaders, and they make up margin by people filling up on the cheaper products. If you have a room full of people eating the expensive stuff (in my case, the sole reason I’m there) they will naturally lose money per head.

A small portion of just that one dish from my local Chinese is £12 - most lunchtime buffet places are around £15 outside of London.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Not a self service AYCEB but happy to report that the buffet at the China Palace in Worthing is decent and not a pair of Everlasts in sight

They do charge for untouched dishes as well, which stops over ordering to a degree.

 

[Justice]

My work mate and I skip breakfast which cost £9 now and go to the Carvery for lunch £10.99 once a week. Sparks aren’t snobs unlike plumbers who apparently wouldn’t be seen dead in the place

 

[BN9 BHA]

My work mate and I skip breakfast which cost £9 now and go to the Carvery for lunch £10.99 once a week. Sparks aren’t snobs unlike plumbers who apparently wouldn’t be seen dead in the place

No surprise, full of riff raff

 

[maffew]

Good on the landlord greedy b*******

 

[Questions]

I had a carvery recently at The Sportsman.
It was disgusting…. I went back for extras though.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I had a carvery recently at The Sportsman.
It was disgusting…. I went back for extras though.

For anybody going to football on Sunday, The Sportsman does a very decent Full English buffet. Costs, dunno, £7.99 or something. Fill yer plate as often as you like. Opens 9am. Ignore the parking notice penalty shit, just register on the screen inside the pub for free parking

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Nothing wasted at this buffet

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Is this the UK's strictest carvery? Chef at war with locals over waste

A defiant pub landlord from Cornwall who charged two 'entitled' customers extra for their Sunday carvery due to their 'excessive' leftovers has vowed to continue the controversial policy.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I know its the DM, but this bloke seems a bit extreme.

I do enjoy the occasional carvery, although I prefer the free house option rather than the Toby franchise.

But I don't think in my entire carvery career I've left that much it would notice or even contemplated taking food home with me.

I've read the article and seen the pictures. He's entirely justified. Taking two plates worth and leaving half. Piled so high you could put a ladder up and plant a flag. Food dripping over the sides. Going back for unlimited seconds then asking for a takeaway box. Yes, he's entirely justified.

P.S. I semi regularly have a carvery at The Sportsman or The Royal George. Great value for money and no complaints.