The buffet, a favoured but restrictive format
Breakfast is a source of pleasure and indulgence. Guests who choose to have this meal in their hotel expect to get a service that matches the price they pay, even though it can sometimes seem high. So it's important that your customers' expectations are met.
89 % of hotel guests prefer a buffet breakfast*.
Why should you do this? Quite simply because for your customers, a buffet is often synonymous with abundance and choice in the products on offer. On a buffet, everyone can eat what they like, in the quantities that suit them.
However, even if you have followed the advice given in our previous article on how to make the most of your buffetWhen it comes to hygiene and cleanliness, this format of providing products is particularly restrictive. Handling by dozens of customers during service can literally turn your buffet into an anarchic battlefield. Lack of hygiene and cleanliness, as well as sloppy presentation, can quickly devalue your hotel's brand image. So it's essential to follow a few simple rules to ensure that your breakfast buffet is impeccable and that your guests feel at home. a real business challenge for your hotel.
Health standards: essential to respect
It may seem obvious, but setting up a breakfast buffet requires scrupulous compliance with hygiene standards. A case of food poisoning in your establishment is unthinkable, as it would permanently damage your reputation and the image of your catering service.
Respectez les températures
Votre buffet propose certainement des produits frais et d’autres chauds. Pour vos produits frais, vous devez respecter la chaîne du froid de leur livraison à leur mise à disposition. Charcuterie, produits laitiers, fruits préparés, jus de fruits doivent être disposés sur un système de froid entre 0 et 4°C. Les produits chauds sont à conserver à plus de 63°C et cuits à la demande ou au fur et à mesure des besoins.
Nettoyez régulièrement
Le passage de plusieurs dizaines de clients vous oblige à avoir un planning de nettoyage à jour. Vous pouvez lister le matériel et la procédure à suivre pour que l’ensemble des équipements soit régulièrement passé au nettoyage avant, pendant et après le service. Un couteau qui tombe sera par exemple remplacé dans l’immédiat, les nappes lavées et propres chaque matin.
Protégez les produits sensibles
Si les films plastiques sont à bannir (peu esthétiques et peu efficaces), vous pouvez protéger les produits sensibles par un pare-haleine ou des cloches hermétiques afin qu’ils ne soient pas laissés à l’air libre ou exposés au soleil.
Jetez ce qui doit l’être
Il est essentiel de détruire certains produits non-consommés comme les produits chauds ou cuits à la fin du service. Les produits non conditionnés devront, quant à eux, ne pas être mis à disposition plus de deux heures à température ambiante. Au moindre doute le produit doit être retiré du buffet.
Presenting your buffet: making life easier for your customers...
1- Rethink the general ergonomics
It is important that each product category has its own space. This will prevent your customers from mixing fresh and hot products, or getting honey on your cold meats. Ideally, you'll have a clearly defined area for hot products, fresh products and dry products or side dishes. The different heights of the dishes can also help you to present your buffet in the right way. But don't forget that if too many products are "on top of each other", your customers risk touching the ones underneath to reach the ones above or higher up. Everything must be within easy reach!
2- Provide practical, differentiated utensils
Your own guests are often the first source of mess on your breakfast buffet. A knife with the handle stuck in the butter, bread or pastry crumbs on the display table, or a spoonful of jam on the tablecloth are all things you'll find hard to avoid on your buffet.
However, it's important to think carefully about the presentation of your products to try and minimise any disappointments. The idea is to make life easier for your customers when they help themselves, with a few simple and practical arrangements.
It may seem obvious, but customers often end up using the tongs provided for bacon to help themselves to the cheese as well... It is therefore important to ensure that you provide them with different utensils for each of your products These include spoons, ladles, tongs of different shapes or colours, knives, forks, etc. If they are used for messy products (butter, jam, spreads, etc.), remember to use knife rests or bowls so that the utensils do not end up directly on the table or loose in a pot. In all cases, it is important that these utensils are replaced regularly or cleaned during service if they become too dirty.
3- Make the right choice between bulk and individual portions
On your buffet, you can offer your products in two different ways: in bulk or in individual portions. If the first is in response to ecological issues, in order to reduce waste and may seem more visually appealing, the second can seduce by its practicalityThis is particularly important to avoid your customers having to handle certain products. It's essential that you make the right choice between these two options. Do you like the bulk concept? Offer your bread already cut up, your side dishes with suitable utensils, your cereals in airtight jars or attractive dispensers. Perhaps butter will remain a product presented in individual portions to avoid your beautiful lump ending up in the bin because it's contaminated by customers serving themselves.
... But also your staff!
Buffet hygiene is also, and above all, a matter for your wait staff! They are the first to have to be reactive to ensure that the service remains perfect. Making life easier for your customers will undoubtedly make life easier for your staff. But it's also essential to think about what you can do to simplify their work.
1- Establish clear procedures and instructions
It is essential for your employees to have clear procedures and instructions concerning the hygiene and cleanliness of your buffet. Even if it seems obvious to change a spoon that has fallen on the floor, your employees can't have everything in their heads, especially at peak times! Let them know when certain products need to be put back or thrown away, equipment needs to be cleaned, utensils need to be replaced, etc. You can ask them to keep a cleaning schedule or a notebook with expiry dates or temperature readings. Simple tools will help them to organise themselves properly.
2- Think about the elements that will make the difference
Your employees can quickly waste time cleaning materials that are unsuitable for the buffet format. Your labelling is certainly one of them! Laminated paper labels, for example, represent a major waste of time for your staff. While it's impossible to redo a stained or illegible label at breakfast, it's time-consuming to reproduce these laminated paper labels at the end of each service, with only approximate results. Setting up a labelling system in plastic cards with stainless steel brackets adapted to buffets can be a solution that makes all the difference! They are easy to clean with a simple wipe or soapy water, and some labelling solutions are specifically adapted to the food industry. Your employees no longer have to waste time re-labelling the buffet every day. Everything is ready to put back in place in just a few minutes.
Use case - Newport Marriott
The Newport Marriott is a hotel with 320 rooms and 3 restaurants. Each restaurant serves at least 10 different dishes spread over several buffets. It was therefore essential to find a solution that could meet the hotel's buffet labelling requirements in a simple, cost-effective and sophisticated way. Thanks to Edikio Guest Flex, the buffets at the Newport Marriott now offer :
- Enhanced brand image - Creation of aesthetically pleasing, professional presentation labels that reflect the establishment's image and reinforce its visual identity.
- Maximum flexibility - Total autonomy for the establishment, which can create its own presentation labels in just a few minutes.
- Advantages in terms of hygiene and quality - Hygienic, resistant and easy to clean, PVC card is particularly suited to food environments.
*Omnium Coach - Statistics on hotel guests