In food service, I suppose, questions are inevitable. There certainly seems to be an endless supply of them in our kitchen here, though mostly they are variations of the same basic three or four questions. Don't get me wrong, questions aren't bad in and of themselves, though they are often inconvenient. Some questions, though, are definitely better than others. So, if you find yourself in a cafeteria-style meal service situation, here are some tips to ask better questions.
The most common question genre relates to the type of food being served, and often sounds like this:
"What is THAT?" *notes of mild disgust*
which tempts me to respond with a
"It's FOOD. Eat it."
Neither the question nor the answer in this case are particularly helpful to either individual involved.
Even without the questioner sounding disgusted, it's not necessarily an easy question to answer. The thing is, I rarely use recipes here, and even if I loosely follow a recipe, it's almost impossible to stick strictly to it because of the different available ingredients. I may have been aiming for something recognizable, like lasagna, but it will be lasagna with yogurt and Israeli cheese, not the Italian cheese that people are accustomed to. These variations make me hesitant to actually call it "Lasagna," making that a difficult question to answer.
Of course, other times, the things I make don't even have roughly equivalent names. So when I have people come through the line and see a pasta dish and they ask,
"What is that?"
there's not much that I can tell them besides,
"Pasta," or maybe, "Pasta with chicken,"
which they should be able to see for themselves.
If you MUST ask what something is, I suggest trying something like this:
"That looks delicious, what is it?" or "That smells amazing, what do you call it?"
Please DON'T ask it like this:
"Do you know what that is?"
Let's see...I'm hanging out in the kitchen in an apron...I'm the ONLY person here...Without any really great leap in logic one could conclude that I'm likely the cook...in which case, YES. I know what it is. And on the off chance that I DON'T know what it is...you probably don't want to know either.
The second most common type question is related, but slightly different. It is often asked by someone making a slight face, as if suspicious of attempted poisoning:
"What's in this?"
"Well, there are 20 people behind you in line, but no worries, let me take 5 minutes to list all the ingredients for you while they wait. (Because chefs always give out their secret ingredients too.)"
I understand that some people have dietary restrictions and legitimately need to know if the dish in question has gluten, dairy, nuts, etc. And I try to be understanding of people who choose dietary restrictions such as vegetarians. Nevertheless, that is a terrible question. If you are concerned that the dish in question might contain problematic ingredients, please ask specifically about those ingredients. That saves me from having to guess what you really want to know, because most people who ask don't really want me to list all the ingredients.
If, however, you actually DO want to know all the ingredients because you're hoping to duplicate it...feel free to come back when there isn't a line and I can give you a basic idea of the recipe (though probably without exact amounts).
A third type of question relates to the amount given. Depending on the person and their eating habits, I will either hear,
"Can I have some more?"
or
"Ohh, a little less, please?"
If you are the sort of person who never likes the amount you've been given, please try to understand. We're trying to feed a relatively large amount of people in a relatively small amount of time, and it's impossible for us to gauge a person's appetite by simply looking. We try to give a good amount of average food. It will be too much for some people and too little for others.
If it's too much for you, it's okay, no one is going to force you to eat all of it. I appreciate your desire not to waste food, but chances are good that whatever you don't eat will be thrown out anyway, whether it's on your plate or not. And know that it can be vaguely insulting to the cook/server to have to take back food.
If it's too little, keep in mind that I'm expecting another 30 people to come eat after you. There will always be enough for seconds (of some things at least), but I'd rather not give you more right now, because I want to make sure that there's enough for everyone to have firsts. It's possible that I will run out of one option and I want everyone to have a chance, or it's possible that I have more in the oven that will be ready for seconds later, but I don't want to run out before it's ready. Either way, if you MUST ask for extra, please don't act disgusted when I ask you to come back for seconds. Trust me, you won't starve.
That concludes our lesson on questioning the cook. :) Please come back next week when we discuss...what happens to these kitchens when everyone is on break...*cue ominous music*
The most common question genre relates to the type of food being served, and often sounds like this:
"What is THAT?" *notes of mild disgust*
which tempts me to respond with a
"It's FOOD. Eat it."
Neither the question nor the answer in this case are particularly helpful to either individual involved.
Even without the questioner sounding disgusted, it's not necessarily an easy question to answer. The thing is, I rarely use recipes here, and even if I loosely follow a recipe, it's almost impossible to stick strictly to it because of the different available ingredients. I may have been aiming for something recognizable, like lasagna, but it will be lasagna with yogurt and Israeli cheese, not the Italian cheese that people are accustomed to. These variations make me hesitant to actually call it "Lasagna," making that a difficult question to answer.
Of course, other times, the things I make don't even have roughly equivalent names. So when I have people come through the line and see a pasta dish and they ask,
"What is that?"
there's not much that I can tell them besides,
"Pasta," or maybe, "Pasta with chicken,"
which they should be able to see for themselves.
If you MUST ask what something is, I suggest trying something like this:
"That looks delicious, what is it?" or "That smells amazing, what do you call it?"
Please DON'T ask it like this:
"Do you know what that is?"
Let's see...I'm hanging out in the kitchen in an apron...I'm the ONLY person here...Without any really great leap in logic one could conclude that I'm likely the cook...in which case, YES. I know what it is. And on the off chance that I DON'T know what it is...you probably don't want to know either.
The second most common type question is related, but slightly different. It is often asked by someone making a slight face, as if suspicious of attempted poisoning:
"What's in this?"
"Well, there are 20 people behind you in line, but no worries, let me take 5 minutes to list all the ingredients for you while they wait. (Because chefs always give out their secret ingredients too.)"
I understand that some people have dietary restrictions and legitimately need to know if the dish in question has gluten, dairy, nuts, etc. And I try to be understanding of people who choose dietary restrictions such as vegetarians. Nevertheless, that is a terrible question. If you are concerned that the dish in question might contain problematic ingredients, please ask specifically about those ingredients. That saves me from having to guess what you really want to know, because most people who ask don't really want me to list all the ingredients.
If, however, you actually DO want to know all the ingredients because you're hoping to duplicate it...feel free to come back when there isn't a line and I can give you a basic idea of the recipe (though probably without exact amounts).
A third type of question relates to the amount given. Depending on the person and their eating habits, I will either hear,
"Can I have some more?"
or
"Ohh, a little less, please?"
If you are the sort of person who never likes the amount you've been given, please try to understand. We're trying to feed a relatively large amount of people in a relatively small amount of time, and it's impossible for us to gauge a person's appetite by simply looking. We try to give a good amount of average food. It will be too much for some people and too little for others.
If it's too much for you, it's okay, no one is going to force you to eat all of it. I appreciate your desire not to waste food, but chances are good that whatever you don't eat will be thrown out anyway, whether it's on your plate or not. And know that it can be vaguely insulting to the cook/server to have to take back food.
If it's too little, keep in mind that I'm expecting another 30 people to come eat after you. There will always be enough for seconds (of some things at least), but I'd rather not give you more right now, because I want to make sure that there's enough for everyone to have firsts. It's possible that I will run out of one option and I want everyone to have a chance, or it's possible that I have more in the oven that will be ready for seconds later, but I don't want to run out before it's ready. Either way, if you MUST ask for extra, please don't act disgusted when I ask you to come back for seconds. Trust me, you won't starve.
That concludes our lesson on questioning the cook. :) Please come back next week when we discuss...what happens to these kitchens when everyone is on break...*cue ominous music*
