I'd like to talk about catering, and here I'm referring not to hotels or restaurants/cafes but to smaller events like church catering. I run a small church cafe once a month with a team of, well, usually one! I can cope with that. We only serve refreshments, croissants, tea cakes and toast but have recently started doing bacon sandwiches. Despite being a veggie I am okay with cooking most meat (except lamb) but cannot stand the smell of tuna.
The guys who come in love the bacon sarnies so I shall be buying extra packets this month as last month was a trial run. I like to think we cater quite well. There is one lady who bakes gluten free cakes and I always have soya milk on hand - all tea and coffee and hot chocolate is Fairtrade.
Where we come unstuck is the larger scale catering for our fairs. The group I'm a member of (Mothers' Union) always cook and serve lunches at these. For longer than I care to remember we have served cottage pie and apple crumble at the Christmas Fair, which this year falls next Saturday. For six years I was in charge of this - getting the list of food together, along with finding volunteers to cook and to serve on the day. All the food is cooked in advance and then re-heated in industrial sized ovens. It a major task but on the whole runs like a well oiled machine. However with so many volunteers and people flitting from one job to another it is hard to keep an eye on what everyone is doing in their food prep. The main sticky areas are the spoons for serving the cottage pie. We have one for the meat and one for vegetarian. Mistakes have been made, I'm sad to say, or in my case near disasters! The preparation of filled rolls for those not wanting a hot meal is another sticky situation. The word is cross contamination. I have tried to explain to people about this - doing the ham somewhere different to the cheese and salad, but they don't understand what the fuss is about.
If this was a life or death situation, which it can be with some allergies we'd be in big trouble, but because it's vegetarian, I get 'I don't see the problem' from people. People just don't think, but these are ordinary people, volunteers. We have to grateful they give up their time. Because I am a vegetarian these things are important to me. And there are more of us now. I make one large veggie cottage pie to feed between 6-8. When I first began doing it we'd sell one or two portions. Now the lot goes!
I also try to accommodate other dietary needs where possible, as long as I know in advance (from church people). I've bought in a few gluten free rolls in case but someone asked about a gluten free cottage pie and I had to say the only one qualifying was the veggie one. They weren't happy at first because they wanted meat (you will never please everyone) but they enjoyed it. I also had one veggie lady query my cottage pie saying it wasn't veggie. Well, it looked like meat as I use veggie mince. I assured her it was because I was a veggie and I'd made it myself. I've also given people a veggie one in the past they've not known the difference!
Gravy is another awkward area. I often don't want gravy with mine but sometimes the cottage pies can get a little overcooked when reheated and the gravy does it's work! I always have a veggie option and last year to save time everyone had veggie and no one complained.
This year (I'm not in charge anymore, yeah!) I'm going to make a small vegan cottage pie using Tesco veggie mince - I've check it and it's vegan friendly - and potato mashed with soya milk. That's one for me and anyone else who wants it.
I've already made some cakes for the fair. These are ordinary ones for selling on a stall. They are in the freezer now and will come out to iced on Friday. I also need to make cakes for cafe which happens to happen the Monday after the fair. So lots of cooking going on this week.
Still, briefly back to the cross contamination point. It is important for veggies and vegans to know their food is cooked and prepared safely. Different spoons, different boards for sandwiches, washing of hands. Use spoons, knives or forks for lifting slices of ham to the rest of the salad. I can't be sure unless I'm watching everyone all the time that it's being done right. It might not mean much to meat eaters but it means a lot to us.
Today there is not much to report on the menu of meals. I finished up the left over pizza at lunchtime and because it was hubby's birthday yesterday we went down the road to Wetherspoons for dinner and I had the Five Bean Chilli, which has always been a favourite with me, and vegan!
The guys who come in love the bacon sarnies so I shall be buying extra packets this month as last month was a trial run. I like to think we cater quite well. There is one lady who bakes gluten free cakes and I always have soya milk on hand - all tea and coffee and hot chocolate is Fairtrade.
Where we come unstuck is the larger scale catering for our fairs. The group I'm a member of (Mothers' Union) always cook and serve lunches at these. For longer than I care to remember we have served cottage pie and apple crumble at the Christmas Fair, which this year falls next Saturday. For six years I was in charge of this - getting the list of food together, along with finding volunteers to cook and to serve on the day. All the food is cooked in advance and then re-heated in industrial sized ovens. It a major task but on the whole runs like a well oiled machine. However with so many volunteers and people flitting from one job to another it is hard to keep an eye on what everyone is doing in their food prep. The main sticky areas are the spoons for serving the cottage pie. We have one for the meat and one for vegetarian. Mistakes have been made, I'm sad to say, or in my case near disasters! The preparation of filled rolls for those not wanting a hot meal is another sticky situation. The word is cross contamination. I have tried to explain to people about this - doing the ham somewhere different to the cheese and salad, but they don't understand what the fuss is about.
If this was a life or death situation, which it can be with some allergies we'd be in big trouble, but because it's vegetarian, I get 'I don't see the problem' from people. People just don't think, but these are ordinary people, volunteers. We have to grateful they give up their time. Because I am a vegetarian these things are important to me. And there are more of us now. I make one large veggie cottage pie to feed between 6-8. When I first began doing it we'd sell one or two portions. Now the lot goes!
I also try to accommodate other dietary needs where possible, as long as I know in advance (from church people). I've bought in a few gluten free rolls in case but someone asked about a gluten free cottage pie and I had to say the only one qualifying was the veggie one. They weren't happy at first because they wanted meat (you will never please everyone) but they enjoyed it. I also had one veggie lady query my cottage pie saying it wasn't veggie. Well, it looked like meat as I use veggie mince. I assured her it was because I was a veggie and I'd made it myself. I've also given people a veggie one in the past they've not known the difference!
Gravy is another awkward area. I often don't want gravy with mine but sometimes the cottage pies can get a little overcooked when reheated and the gravy does it's work! I always have a veggie option and last year to save time everyone had veggie and no one complained.
This year (I'm not in charge anymore, yeah!) I'm going to make a small vegan cottage pie using Tesco veggie mince - I've check it and it's vegan friendly - and potato mashed with soya milk. That's one for me and anyone else who wants it.
I've already made some cakes for the fair. These are ordinary ones for selling on a stall. They are in the freezer now and will come out to iced on Friday. I also need to make cakes for cafe which happens to happen the Monday after the fair. So lots of cooking going on this week.
Still, briefly back to the cross contamination point. It is important for veggies and vegans to know their food is cooked and prepared safely. Different spoons, different boards for sandwiches, washing of hands. Use spoons, knives or forks for lifting slices of ham to the rest of the salad. I can't be sure unless I'm watching everyone all the time that it's being done right. It might not mean much to meat eaters but it means a lot to us.
Today there is not much to report on the menu of meals. I finished up the left over pizza at lunchtime and because it was hubby's birthday yesterday we went down the road to Wetherspoons for dinner and I had the Five Bean Chilli, which has always been a favourite with me, and vegan!
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