Bothersome Buffets

If you're a vegetarian you're probably aware that when it comes to meetings with a lunch included they will probably ask if there are any 'specific' requirements. This is in fact code for, we're going to provide chicken and/or ham sandwiches if you’re a ‘freaky vegetarian’ you better tell us know so we can throw a bit of mousetrap cheddar on a bit of white bread for you. The other reason for this is so that they can work out what ‘percentage’ of food should be vegetarian.

Some of you are now either rolling your eyes and saying “whinging vegetarian” or rolling your eyes and saying “tell me about it”.

But what usually happens in this all too common scenario? 

You’re in the meeting and you catch sight of the lunch arriving in an adjacent room, it’s wrapped in plastic film and usually on a trolley. You or one of your fellow vegetarians now has to take control of the situation. Why? I hear you say. Because if one of them (the meat eaters) gets hold of the job of unwrapping the buffet you can guarantee that the carefully placed labels delineating the vegetarian option will disappear leaving you with sandwich or even samosa roulette.

The next thing to do is listen out for the meat eater’s battle cry of “this all looks very good”, this is where they see the insipid chicken and decide how fabulous the veggie option looks. The “this all looks very good” exclamation is their notification that they are going to get to the buffet before you and grab as many veggie options as they can.  I refer you back to paragraph one. The person ordering the food as worked out that in a meeting of twenty, four are vegetarian. They have specified to the caterers “20%” vegetarian, this will inevitably lead to only 1 in 5 sandwiches being provided. If you are half way down the queue for the sandwiches and the meat option looks a little dull, you could be in for a hungry day.

What’s the solution? 

At my last meeting, with colleagues from JISC InfoNet, they provided a sumptuous, but simple buffet. Even though there were only 4 vegetarians it looked as though the 20% rule was applied to the meat. Did the meat eaters whinge? No, because they all eat veggie food anyway. Talking to a couple of colleagues at the meeting who are not vegetarian they told me that if they have meetings they often ask for 100% vegetarian because it is usually better quality and no one ever complains.