restaurants using wooden chopping boards as plates

Bayberry

lanomist wrote: »

These are all gimmicks being used by restaurants to try and show that they are modern and competing with the the top gourmet restaurants. Steak on a wooden chopping board, steak on a stone ( a piece of slate ) Send the meal back and request a plate, or better still ask for an empty plate to be brought to the table and change it yourself.

What would be the point - if you're worried about the board being contaminated, the damage has already been done by the time the food is delivered to you on the board. Lifting it onto a plate isn't going to make any difference at that point.

Or are you just sending a message?

SpaceTime

northgirl wrote: »

That's absolutely gross(bowler hat).

At least the tea was in glass! Where was that out of interest?

The bowler hat was somewhere in Camden.

SpaceTime

I was in an Ethiopian restaurant in Belgium where they basically put out a huge table sized piece of flatbread and everything is served on that. You just eat the table basically and you're supposed to feed the person next to you

Delicious food though!

the beer revolu

Bayberry wrote: »

What would be the point - if you're worried about the board being contaminated, the damage has already been done by the time the food is delivered to you on the board. Lifting it onto a plate isn't going to make any difference at that point.

Or are you just sending a message?

Not everyone's issue with the lack of plates is to do with food hygiene.

dubscottie

Slate? The dust from certain regions is toxic.. I remember our school being stripped of the slate as it was toxic (and no it was not asbestos).

A plate.. Fork and a knife.

But anything that kills hipsters cant be a bad thing.

juneg

SpaceTime wrote: »

I was in an Ethiopian restaurant in Belgium where they basically put out a huge table sized piece of flatbread and everything is served on that. You just eat the table basically and you're supposed to feed the person next to you

Delicious food though!

Your post just reminded me of the medieval "trencher" a plate of bread.


The Middle Ages, Everyday Life in Medieval Europe, by Jeffrey L. Singman, (Sterling publishers) offers the following observation: "The place setting also included a trencher, a round slice of bread from the bottom or the top of an old loaf, having a hard crust and serving as a plate. After the meal, the sauce-soaked trenchers were probably distributed to servants or the poor. Food was served on platters, commonly one platter to two diners, from which they transferred it to their trenchers."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trencher_(tableware)

Jellybaby1

amdublin wrote: »

Chowder served in sourdough bread bowl is standard San Francisco fare. You eat the bread as the soup goes down.
Seriously how long would bread last if it was being "reused" it would get wet and soggy and fall apart.

I love food on a board. It adds to the atmosphere of the restaurant and the style of the food imo e.g.. Bbq in pitt bros.

Whatever the grade of restaurant and food, whatever the price of the meal, I personally would find this unappealing.

the beer revolu

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Whatever the grade of restaurant and food, whatever the price of the meal, I personally would find this unappealing.

No restaurant is reusing bread bowls!

rubadub

the beer revolu wrote: »

Not everyone's issue with the lack of plates is to do with food hygiene.

+1, here is one from "we want plates"


I would also be worried about what the things are made from, like these shovels and nonsense, hot food on paint or lacquer could be harmful. I have heard of chefs in this forum using items which would not be certified as foodgrade.

A study published in 2014 in Food Control also seems to favor wood. It found that a wooden board contaminated with Listeria (from raw chicken) transferred fewer bacteria to cooked chicken subsequently placed on the board, compared to a plastic board.
Then again, other research supports the notion that plastic is safer. Another study from the 1990s, done by researchers at the FDA and the National Sanitation Foundation, revealed that bacteria absorbed in wooden boards can in fact survive—meaning they could, at least in theory, multiply and recontaminate the surface upon further use.
More recently, a 2011 study in Letters in Applied Microbiology found that smooth wooden and plastic boards retained similar levels of bacteria after chicken contaminated with Campylobacter jejuni was placed on them. But if the boards were gouged, the wooden ones ended up more contaminated than the plastic ones, and they transferred more bacteria to cooked chicken subsequently placed on the board. Moreover, plastic boards (as well as other nonporous surfaces like acrylic and marble) may be less of a food safety risk simply because they are easier to clean.

http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food-safety/article/which-cutting-board-safest

Not sure about harmful contaminants but I know wooden toothpicks are used as a long term storage method for fungi. You let the fungus grow on damp toothpicks and it is still viable many years later.

Jellybaby1

the beer revolu wrote: »

No restaurant is reusing bread bowls!

I assume you mean in Ireland. So glad to hear that. I've checked my source and the couple tell me they were on holiday in a European city, but it was not in Ireland.

BaZmO*

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I assume you mean in Ireland. So glad to hear that. I've checked my source and the couple tell me they were on holiday in a European city, but it was not in Ireland.

I'd say no country in the world is reusing bread bowls. Think about it for a second. How would it even be possible?

L1011

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I assume you mean in Ireland. So glad to hear that. I've checked my source and the couple tell me they were on holiday in a European city, but it was not in Ireland.

No, nowhere in the entire world. It would be obvious immediately if they were even trying to do it.

rubadub wrote: »

I would also be worried about what the things are made from, like these shovels and nonsense, hot food on paint or lacquer could be harmful. I have heard of chefs in this forum using items which would not be certified as foodgrade.

The mini fryer baskets are probably the only of these ridiculous goo-gaws that are probably made of food-grade materials (and even there I'd have questions). Other stuff being bought out of hardware stores or off alibaba etc really should be checked - and inevitably removed from use - by the FSAI.

Jellybaby1

BaZmO* wrote: »

I'd say no country in the world is reusing bread bowls. Think about it for a second. How would it even be possible?

I don't intend getting into any argument about this. I merely posted an incident which happened to people I know.

You do realise that the bacteria comes from undercooked food. Not the wood.

BaZmO*

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I don't intend getting into any argument about this. I merely posted an incident which happened to people I know.

Nobody is arguing with you. I'm just discussing the practicalities of what you're saying. Soup is wet, bread is dry. Put soup into bread and bread becomes wet. It'd be impossible to reuse the bread. Plus, putting the bread in the dishwasher would destroy it.

amdublin

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I assume you mean in Ireland. So glad to hear that. I've checked my source and the couple tell me they were on holiday in a European city, but it was not in Ireland.

It's a ridiculous story that you could clarify further with your source. The bread would become soggy and unusable very quickly (after the first soup serving) and disintegrate.

Jawgap

amdublin wrote: »

It's a ridiculous story that you could clarify further with your source. The bread would become soggy and unusable very quickly (after the first soup serving) and disintegrate.

Unless it was bread shaped bowls, made of some other more durable material?

amdublin

Jawgap wrote: »

Unless it was bread shaped bowls, made of some other more durable material?

Yep maybe it was bread that then had been covered in something that glazed it like a bowl?

looksee

I flatly refuse to believe that bread bowls could be used - especially 'over and over'. It is quite possible that the couple got sick after eating this food, but not because of re-used bread bowls.

bbsrs

endacl wrote: »

Ate in the same restaurant in Dingle the last three nights. Yes, the food was that good! It came on a plate. Just a normal plate. Nothing fancy.

I've often got good food served up on a board. I've only ever had great food on a plate though.

Which restaurant?

Jawgap

amdublin wrote: »

Yep maybe it was bread that then had been covered in something that glazed it like a bowl?

You could do glazed salt dough, but I doubt even that would survive too long in a commercial kitchen. or you could take fake display bread, hollow it out and put a bowl insert into it - then only the bowl element would require washing and sanitising before re-use. The outer 'shell' would just need a wipe down.

I'd say one advantage of using boards over plates and slates, is that they bounce better when dropped and damage adds character!

amdublin

looksee wrote: »

I flatly refuse to believe that bread bowls could be used - especially 'over and over'.

The couple may have thought this was the issue that caused them to be sick. But it's is simply impossible to "reuse" bread as a bowl. I think they need to look elsewhere at other causes of their illness.

cormie

Sova Vegan Butcher (highly recommended) use edible plates made from wheat bran. They are really sturdy and don't get soggy during use with regular salsas, sauces etc. Maybe they would over the course of several hours if used with hot watery soup.

They definitely don't reuse the plates but perhaps some restaurants who use similar plates would?

Robsweezie

i read an article about this recently and it was said that wooden the chopping board option looks pretentious. people like what they know and are used to. you can understand the reaction.

I hate those gourmet burgers with a stick shoved through them.

Teyla Emmagan

You know when you go into a Chinese restaurant and they have a carrot carved into a mini temple, or whatever. Do you reckon if those arrive back into the kitchen unmolested the chef just gives them a rinse and sticks them onto the next plate? I have often had my suspicions. It seems like a lot of carving effort for something that will only be used once.

As for wooden boards and slates, give me a plate!!! The only novelty serving container I can manage are those wooden boats they give you sushi on. For anything else I want porcelain.

ScottSF

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

... the worst story I heard was a couple I know who were served soup in a scooped out bread loaf, which I believe some restaurants still do. They were sick that night after the meal and they suspected the bread loaf might have been used, over, and over. Ugh!

They're supposed to eat the bread bowl!

In San Francisco (and I assume many other places) it is common to order clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Yum!

I truly don't think any restaurant would ever re-use a bread soup bowl. Plus it gets all soggy. Instead of serving bread on the side you get bread as the soup's container. Great idea in my opinion as long as you eat the bowl.

BaZmO*

ScottSF wrote: »

They're supposed to eat the bread bowl!

In San Francisco (and I assume many other places) it is common to order clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Yum!

I truly don't think any restaurant would ever re-use a bread soup bowl. Plus it gets all soggy. Instead of serving bread on the side you get bread as the soup's container. Great idea in my opinion as long as you eat the bowl.

We have a similar recipe in the Cooking Club.

Toto Wolfcastle

Yeah, that's my problem with the whole 'they reused the bread bowl' story. (Obviously apart from the structural integrity issue!) Even if people don't eat loads of the bread, surely everyone gives it a try? There would be a lump taken out of it.

I'm sure there are places that use wooden boards safely, but following We Want Plates on Twitter has put me right off them. I saw one the other day where a shard of wood had broken off. Why would they think it was a good idea to use a board in that condition?

rubadub

Deleted User wrote: »

You do realise that the bacteria comes from undercooked food. Not the wood.

Juice can come out of undercooked food and seep into the wood, then seep out again or be mixed into sauces people put on the wood.



Its not just undercooked food either, e.g. I know cooked rice is safe to eat right away but if you then leave it out it will be toxic. So if I got a wooden bowl full of rice I would be wary.

hardCopy

ScottSF wrote: »

They're supposed to eat the bread bowl!

In San Francisco (and I assume many other places) it is common to order clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Yum!

I truly don't think any restaurant would ever re-use a bread soup bowl. Plus it gets all soggy. Instead of serving bread on the side you get bread as the soup's container. Great idea in my opinion as long as you eat the bowl.

Of course it couldn't be reused. How many people would actually leave an empty bread bowl to be reused? None. They would all be eaten, at least partially.