The Bubbling Anchovy Maneuver?
June 10, 2018 9:06 PM Subscribe
Is serving salty pastries with sparkling water really a time-honored emergency catering trick, to keep party attendees sufficiently full until a delayed main course is served?
I just saw C'est la vie! and anchovy pastries were deployed in this manner, with an explanation that the pastries coat the stomach and the salt causes thirst, leading the eater to chug sparkling water, which causes the pastries to swell and cause feelings of fullness. There were mutterings from the catering staff characters about how they'd never seen a situation so dire as to actually require the emergency rations of pastries and sparkling water.
Is this really a known tactic of last resort? Has anyone experienced it, as a guest or as a caterer? Is there an American equivalent more elaborate than mountains of rolls and butter?
I just saw C'est la vie! and anchovy pastries were deployed in this manner, with an explanation that the pastries coat the stomach and the salt causes thirst, leading the eater to chug sparkling water, which causes the pastries to swell and cause feelings of fullness. There were mutterings from the catering staff characters about how they'd never seen a situation so dire as to actually require the emergency rations of pastries and sparkling water.
Is this really a known tactic of last resort? Has anyone experienced it, as a guest or as a caterer? Is there an American equivalent more elaborate than mountains of rolls and butter?
Getting an extra dish ready to go just in case and not sending it out sounds like an expense very few people hiring caterers would indulge. Think about all the steps involved in preparing something to serve at a party. And the whole swelling-pastry thing just sounds bizarre--if you were worried about hungry guests and wanted a backup dish to pass, you'd probably just...prepare an extra dish that was a little heartier than the others.
posted by praemunire at 7:46 AM on June 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 7:46 AM on June 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Yeah as a past caterer/food service person, this makes no sense - generally speaking, catering speed is a function of the amount of labor you have and the workflow. To divert some of that labor and workflow to preparing an unexpected course is only going to exacerbate the problem and, depending on the timing, cause two course workflows to crash into one another.
Also, the notion of preparing a food such that people will have to chug sparkling water would create a corresponding backlog for wait/bar staff that doesn't jive with catering principles that, generally, try to avoid creating an intense backlog of demand for any one thing to allow only a few people to serve a group effectively.
posted by notorious medium at 8:49 AM on June 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also, the notion of preparing a food such that people will have to chug sparkling water would create a corresponding backlog for wait/bar staff that doesn't jive with catering principles that, generally, try to avoid creating an intense backlog of demand for any one thing to allow only a few people to serve a group effectively.
posted by notorious medium at 8:49 AM on June 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Sounds like pure fiction, thanks everyone!
posted by esoterrica at 8:28 AM on June 14, 2018
posted by esoterrica at 8:28 AM on June 14, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by cooker girl at 6:25 AM on June 11, 2018 [1 favorite]