How to eat your way through a smorgasbord and not be ridiculed by the staff.
The do's and don'ts.
Not being an expert on etiquette, take my advice as survival tactics.
I’ve had the opportunity to work on the smorgasbord at both restaurants, I like the chance to interact with the guests and observe their behaviour.
For the inexperienced eating your way through a smorgasbord is a strictly regulated and cultural steered meal. An easy guideline is, your meal consists of five courses “visits to the buffet”, but again everyone has their own opinion.
Take a new plate and cutlery at each visit, your waiter/waitress should clear your setting each time you get up.
So, these are the rules but obviously rule number one is, there are no rules, if you don’t like it hop over it and move on, but if you are curious try something new.
Some cultures think they should take loads of food to show their appreciation, this is a fool’s game as they only eat 10% of what they take & in our modern world it’s called food waste, and the individual is a perpetrator.
Some feel that its courteous to leave food on the plate, we in the industry feel you don’t know how hungry you are or how much you can eat, you need to plan your meal so theres no wastage.
Some try to cram it all on the one plate, some of these guests are just novices or ill informed, the locals that do this are ignorant to their own culture, we in the service industry laugh and mock them in silence and think they are idiots.
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