A buffet is a meal serving system where patrons serve themselves. American Chinese cuisine refers to the style of food served by certain Chinese Restaurants in the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the It is a popular method of feeding large numbers of people with minimal staff. The term is also used to describe a sideboard, an antique form of furniture which was sometimes used to offer the dishes of a buffet meal to guests, in a private home. A sideboard is an item of Furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food for displaying serving dishes such as silver and for Storage.
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Types
One form of buffet is to have a line of food serving stalls filled with fixed portions of food; customers take whatever food items they want as they walk along and pay at the end for each piece. Food is any substance usually composed primarily of Carbohydrates Fats water and/or Proteins that can be eaten or drunk by an A stall is a small enclosure of some kind usually less enclosed than a Room. This form is most commonly seen in cafeterias. InfosysElectronicCityCafeteriaJPG|thumb|250px|right|One of a number of cafeterias at Electronic City campus Infosys Technologies Ltd
Another form known as the all-you-can-eat buffet is free in form: customers pay a fixed fee and can then help themselves to as much food as they wish to eat in a single meal. This form is found often in restaurants, especially in hotels; virtually every major casino resort in North America includes one, with some being very elaborate and extensive. A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging usually on a short-term basis A casino is in the modern sense of the word a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of Gambling activities In North America and Australia, restaurants specializing in Chinese and Indian cuisine commonly offer this type of buffet for lunch. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Chinese cuisine ( Traditional Chinese: 中國菜 Simplified Chinese: 中国菜 originated from the various regions of China and has become widespread in Luncheon, commonly abbreviated to lunch, is a midday Meal. In English-speaking countries during the eighteenth century what was originally called "
A third type of buffet commonly offered in delicatessens and supermarkets is a salad bar, in which customers help themselves to lettuce and other salad ingredients, then pay by weight. Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods" Customer divider barjpg|thumb|In supermarkets sellers periodically change prices for classes of goods in response to market conditions rather than negotiating the price of each good A salad bar is a Buffet -style table or counter at a restaurant on which Salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa) is a Temperate annual or Biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. Salad is a mixture of cold foods usually including vegetables and/or fruits often with a dressing occasionally nuts or Croutons, and sometimes with the addition of
As a compromise between self-service and full table service, a staffed buffet may be offered: diners bring their own plate along the buffet line and are given a portion from a server at each station. This method is prevalent at catered meetings where diners are not paying specifically for their meal.
A traditional form of buffet in Sweden is the smörgåsbord, which literally means table of sandwiches. Smörgåsbord is a Swedish word which refers to a type of Scandinavian meal served Buffet -style in Swedish cuisine.
It is a common idea that although "All you can eat" buffets offer a large quantity of food for a set price, the quality of the food is sometimes compromised when compared to a regular "sit down" dinner. This is due to the focus on the food being produced in large quantities instead of the focus being towards perfecting seasoning and meat quality for example. However, this is not an across the board rule.
Home Buffets
Buffets are effective for serving large numbers of people at once. For this reason, they are prevalent in institutional settings, such as business conventions or large catered parties. Catering is the Business of providing Foodservice at a remote site Another advantage of buffets compared to table service is that diners have a great deal of choice and the ability to closely inspect food before selecting it. Food is any substance usually composed primarily of Carbohydrates Fats water and/or Proteins that can be eaten or drunk by an Since a buffet involves diners serving themselves, it has in the past been considered an informal form of dining, less elegant than table service. Elegance is the attribute of being unusually effective and simple In recent years, however, buffet dinners are increasingly popular among hosts of home dinner parties, especially in homes where limited kitchen space complicates the serving of individual plates. Dinner is the main Meal of the day The meal normally consists of a combination of cooked or sometimes uncooked proteins (meat fish or legumes with vegetables and/or A party is a Social gathering for Celebration and Recreation. For the Banana Yashimoto novel see Kitchen (novel A kitchen, is a room or part of a room (sometimes called "kitchen Unglazed platesjpg|thumb|A set of plates before being glazed at a Pottery shop It has also become popular in the American South.
Home Buffet Set-Up
Home buffets work well in both small or large spaces, but only when every element of buffet set-up is considered. A home is a place of Residence or Refuge. It is usually a place where an individual or a family can rest in and be able to store Personal property. The room in which a buffet is to be held must have sufficient space away from furniture to prevent damage. A room, in Architecture, is any distinguishable space within a structure Furniture is the Mass noun for the movable objects which may support the human body (seating furniture and beds, provide storage or hold objects on horizontal The most efficient buffet table set up consists of one to two tables wide enough for two rows of platters. A table is a form of Furniture composed of a surface supported by a base usually four legs A platter is a large type of Dishware used for serving food It is a tray on which food is displayed and served to people This allows guests to serve themselves from both sides of the table, speeding up the serving process and reducing the risk of spillage.
Buffet tables should be set up in a logical order, with plates first, followed by the main course and side dishes. Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Last should be utensils and napkins. A napkin or serviette is a rectangle of Cloth or Paper used at the table for wiping the Mouth while Eating. If possible, desserts and especially beverages should be served from a separate table, preferably far away from the main buffet table. Dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal usually consisting of sweet Food but sometimes of a strongly-flavored one such as some Cheeses The A drink, or beverage, is a Liquid specifically prepared for Human consumption This helps to prevent spills.
History
While serving oneself at a meal has a long history, the modern buffet was developed in France in the 18th century, soon spreading throughout Europe. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system The term originally referred to the sideboard where the food was served, but eventually became applied to the form. A sideboard is an item of Furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food for displaying serving dishes such as silver and for Storage. The buffet became popular in the English-speaking world in the second half of the nineteenth century. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States
When the possession of gold and silver has been a measure of solvency of a regime, the display of it, in the form of plates and vessels, is more a political act than a gesture of conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying Income or Wealth. The 16th-century French term buffet applied both to the display itself and to the furniture on which it was mounted, often draped with rich textiles, but more often as the century advanced an elaborately carved cupboard surmounted by tiers of shelves. In England such a buffet was called a court cupboard. Prodigal displays of plate were probably first revived at the fashionable court of Burgundy and adopted in France. The Duchy of Burgundy was a feudal territory once existing within the Kingdom of France. The Baroque displays of silver and gold that were affected by Louis XIV of France were immortalized in paintings by Alexandre-François Desportes and others, before Louis' plate and his silver furniture had to be sent to the mint to pay for the wars at the end of his reign. Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Early years Birth and ancestry Louis XIV was born in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on September 5 1638 and bore the Heir apparent Alexandre-François Desportes (Champigneul Marne 24 February, 1661 — Paris 20 April, 1743) was a French painter and decorative
During the 18th century more subtle demonstrations of solvency were preferred. A buffet was revived in England and France at the end of the century, when new ideals of privacy made a modicum of self-service at breakfast-time appealing, even among those who could have had a footman behind each chair. Self service is the practice of serving oneself usually when purchasing items In The Cabinet Dictionary of 1803 Thomas Sheraton gave a neoclassical design and observed that "a buffet may, with some propriety, be restored to modern use, and prove ornamental to a modern breakfast-room, answering as the china cabinet|repository of a tea equipage"
20th century
In a 1922 housekeeping book entitled How to Prepare and Serve a Meal, Lillian B. Thomas Sheraton ( 1751 - October 22 1806) was a furniture designer, one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and Lansdown wrote:
The concept of eating a buffet arose in mid 17th century France, when gentleman callers would arive at the homes of ladies they wanted to woo unexpectedly. Their surprise arrival would throw the kicten staff in to a panic and the only food that could be served was a selection of what was found in the cold room. The chosen food always centred around a selection of sandwiches, preferably with the bread starting to curl at the edges. Potential accompanyments also include watery chicken, Pret A Manger carrot cake and fingered buscuits. All food is presented on trays and the suitors were asked to select what they wanted and then eat it off small plates balanced atop their knees.
- The informal luncheon or lunch—originally the light meal eaten between breakfast and dinner, but now often taking the place of dinner, the fashionable hour being one (or half after if cards are to follow) —is of two kinds. The "buffet" luncheon, at which the guests eat standing; and the luncheon served at small tables, at which the guests are seated. . . .
- The knife is tabooed at the “buffet” lunch, hence all the food must be such as can be eaten with fork or spoon. As a rule, friends of the hostess serve. . . The following dishes cover the essentials of a “buffet” luncheon. Beverages: punch, coffee, chocolate (poured from urn, or filled cups brought from pantry on tray); hot entrées of various sorts (served from chafing dish or platter) preceded by hot bouillon; cold entrées, salads, lobster, potatoes, chicken, shrimp, with heavy dressings; hot rolls, wafer-cut sandwiches (lettuce, tomato, deviled ham, etc. ); small cakes, frozen creams and ices. [1]
- The informal luncheon at small tables calls for service by a number of maids, hence the “buffet” plan is preferable.
The "all you can eat" buffet has been ascribed to Herb Macdonald, a Las Vegas hotel manager who introduced the idea in 1946 . Las Vegas ( Spanish: "The Meadows" is the most populous City in the state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally In his 1965 novel The Muses of Ruin, William Pearson wrote, of the Las Vegas buffet:
- At midnight every self-respecting casino premières its $1. 50 buffet—the eighth wonder of the world, the one true art form this androgynous harlot of cities has delivered herself of. . . . We marvel at the Great Pyramids, but they were built over decades; the midnight buffet is built daily. Crushed-ice castles and grottoes chill the shrimp and lobster. Sculptured aspic is scrolled with Paisley arabesques. They are, laid out with reverent artistry: hors d'oeuvres, relish, salads, and sauces; crab, herring oyster, sturgeon, octopus, and salmon; turkey, ham, roast beef, casseroles, fondues, and curries; cheeses, fruits and pastries. How many times you go through the line is a private matter between you and your capacity, and then between your capacity and the chef's evil eye. [2]
There is a growing tendency to misuse the word "buffet" to indicate an "all you can eat" meal, even if the food isn't already prepared and laid on a table, but rather you pay a set price and can order anything from a menu, as many times as you like.
Popular buffets
In the United States, Old Country Buffet is a large buffet chain, and part of the larger Buffets, Inc. corporation which also owns Country Buffet and HomeTown Buffet. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Buffets Inc, with corporate offices in Eagan Minnesota, is a company that owns American national chains of Buffets As of January 2008 Buffets Buffets Inc, with corporate offices in Eagan Minnesota, is a company that owns American national chains of Buffets As of January 2008 Buffets HomeTown Buffet did not invent, but has largely popularized the "scatter buffet. " This merely refers to the layout of the dishes served; foods are grouped in a number of separate pavilions instead of in a long line. This aids in customers retrieving foods they wish to eat with ease and helps speed movement of customers throughout the restaurant.
Although sometimes viewed as less elegant, several high end hotels in the United States have brunch buffets featuring gourment entrees, and several hotels in Las Vegas, such as the Bellagio's Buffet at Bellagio and the Rio's Carnival World Buffet amongst many, have achieved popularity and positive critical responses for their selection of entrees and service. Bellagio is an AAA Five-Diamond Mobil Four-Starred rated luxury Hotel and Casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in the Paradise area The Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino is located off the Las Vegas Strip in Clark County, Nevada, USA.
Buffets are a popular form of dining throughout Las Vegas, Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey, where they are typically very large and boast a wide variety of foods. Las Vegas ( Spanish: "The Meadows" is the most populous City in the state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally
Other American restaurant chains well-known for their buffets include Golden Corral, which features food products presented in pans, Souplantation (known in particular for its soups and salads), Gatti's Pizza, Barnhill's Buffet, Cici's Pizza, Fresh Choice (a smaller competitor of Souplantation), Todai, Pancho's Mexican Buffet, and Ponderosa Steakhouse. Golden Corral is an American family-style restaurant chain that features a large Buffet and Grill offering 150 hot and cold items a carving Souplantation (also known in some locations as Sweet Tomatoes) is an upscale Buffet -style chain Restaurant with locations in the south west and Gatti's Pizza is a Southeastern United States Pizza - Buffet chain CiCi's Pizza is an American Buffet Restaurant chain based in Coppell Texas, specializing in American-style Pizza. Fresh Choice is a chain of Buffet -style restaurants located in California, Washington, and Texas under the names Fresh Choice The, abbreviated as, is a major Research university located in Tokyo, Japan. Pancho's Mexican Buffet is a chain of Tex-Mex Restaurants (28 as of January 2007 in the United States. Ponderosa Steakhouse and Bonanza Steakhouse are a chain of buffet/steakhouse restaurants
In Australia, buffet chains like Foodstar serve a large number of patrons with Asian cuisine, Carvery, Seafood, Salads and Desserts. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Sizzler is another prominent restaurant offering a buffet. Sizzler (founded in 1958 is a United States -based Restaurant chain with headquarters in
In 1990 Big Lukes in Newcastle Upon Tyne became the United Kingdom's first U.S.-style 'all you can eat' buffet restaurant. Newcastle upon Tyne ( (often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and Metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, England The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
In Russia, the chain MooMoo (or MyMy in Russian) serves all its food buffet-style. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Moo-Moo (Му-Му is a chain of Buffet restaurants in Moscow. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages [3]
In Brazil, comida a kilo or comida por kilo - literally, "food by the kilo" - restaurants are common. This is a cafeteria style buffet in which diners are billed by the weight of the food selected, excluding the weight of the plate. The Brazilian rodizio style is all-you-can-eat, but is not self-service. Rodízio (roo-DEE-zyoo or xu'dʲizju/ xo'dʒizju &ndash BP &ndash or &ndash EP) is a style of restaurant service in Brazilian and Portuguese
In Japan, a buffet or smorgasbord is known as a Viking. Dessert Vikings are very popular in Japan where one can eat from a buffet full of desserts.
Buffets are also often found on ocean liners and cruise ships, such as those belonging to Carnival Cruise Lines. Carnival Cruise Lines is a Cruise line operating a large number of Cruise ships.
References
- ^ *How to Prepare and Serve a Meal, Project Gutenberg etext of the 1922 book by Lillian B. Lansdown
- ^ Pearson, William (1965). The Muses of Ruin. McGraw-Hill.
- ^ Moo-Moo chain, Moscow - Restaurants - VirtualTourist.com
Buffet Table Setting Guidelines, <http://www.divinedinnerparty.com/buffet-table-setting.html>. Retrieved on 4 March 2008
See also
A buffet car is a passenger car of a train where snacks and drinks can be bought at a counter and consumedDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic