Buffets

A buffet is a meal serving system where patrons serve themselves. It is a popular method of feeding large numbers of people with minimal staff. more...

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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.

Buffet forms

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. This form is most commonly seen in cafeterias. Another form known as the all-you-can-eat buffet is freer in form: customers pay a fixed fee and can then can 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. In North America and Australia, restaurants specializing in Chinese and Indian cuisine commonly offer this type of buffet for lunch. 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.

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.

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. 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. Since a buffet involves people serving themselves, it is considered an informal form of dining, less elegant than table service. It is, however, usually the preferred serving method for large groups, even in formal settings such as weddings, due to its logistical advantages.

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. The term originally referred to the sideboard where the food was served, but eventually became applied to the form. The buffet became popular in the English-speaking world in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Read more at Wikipedia.org