Aibu to wonder

[covetingthepreciousthings]

Aibu to wonder why restaurants & cafes don't serve children's portions of foods that are cooler than burning hot?
Is the logistics for places to do this too tricky?

Every time we eat out with our children, they have to wait some time before they can dig into their meals due to the temperature of the food. Meaning they then get impatient & grumpy.

I know there's been previous threads on here about restaurants not heating up baby food for parents due to the risk of it being too hot, so made me wonder about this.

Also passing hot food over babies is another thing that always gets to me..

Can't say I have ever really had this problem. The temperature of my kids food always seems to be fine. My problem with kids meals is the lack of choice. It is always nuggets chips pizza burger we often ask for kids portions of adult meals

I actually think the problem is quite a lot of kids aren’t used to eating hot food, or even moderately warm food. When I was 5 I knew to blow on my spoonful of soup to cool it down, but it seems many modern kids aren’t capable of this anymore?

Restaurant serves hot food. Call the Daily Mail, it is an outrage.

Would there be hygiene issues if the food wasn't served hot?

Also passing hot food over babies is another thing that always gets to me..

I used to waitress in my younger days. A good wait-person never passes food or drinks over someone. You go round the table.

I completely agree OP I have this all the time and it gives me the rage! I tend to order kids foods first now and ask for it to be left to cool until the rest is ready. My 2 year old does not have the patience to wait while staring at a plate when she is hungry

Surely it's because of elf & safety? When you reheat food you need to ensure it's hot in order to kill any potential bacteria. Warming doesn't kill bacteria.

That's what happens when things are microwaved... Ordinary cooked food SHOULD come out as usual, hot, but not so it burns. It's more to do with chucking out as many dishes as possible rather than health and safety...

I'd prefer it because if it's piping hot then the temperature is correct. I'd sooner receive a too hot meal and wait for it too cool than question whether it was ever hot enough in the first place.

Depending on the food, it will also be that sending out cold food can result in complaints and having to make adult meals again.

As the adult, anyway, it's your responsibility to decide on an appropriate temperature for your child's food. Restaurant standard is to cook it and send it out, not leave it to go cold.

Wait for it to cool

I've only had this problem once, just the other day. The food was brought out and put straight in front of my 12 month old, and it was so hot even an adult wouldn't have been able to eat it straight away. At 12 months she doesn't understand the concept of blowing on her food to cool it down. Wasn't a huge problem, used the opportunity to explain that sometimes we have to wait a little longer. Not that she understood a word I was saying or cared

Oh wow is this even a problem!??

Jesus Christ I don't know how I ever managed when out with my lot then!

Regularly get waiting staff handing my three year old food and telling him the plate is hot, hot food is fine, totally normal but he does not expect a 200c plate! I usually decant onto a side plate to solve the problem.

Also, total lack of vegetables ever. They're always happy to throw on a bit of salad but nothing comes with veg or is vegetable based.

I think unless you have a young child yourself you forget or don't realise all the niggly healthy and safety stuff, I feel I'm constantly nagging family about the location of hot tea or leaving knives on Work surfaces.

You have to think about how a commercial kitchen system works. Food is cooked to temp, for ex. usually 80oC for chicken dishes. Temperature probing is done by the chefs who are trained to do this in a specific way by law. The food is then passed to the hotplate waiting area for a server to collect. There will be a backlog building up as each table orders are completed. To ask a server to keep a plate aside means it will be put somewhere (anywhere) there is space whilst the rest of that table's food is getting nice and crusty on the hot plate, also putting the rest of that session's system out. Who so you think is checking the temp. of the children's portion? Not the Chefs, they're onto the next order, so it's down to a busy server having a prod every now and then as they pass-by. These servers are back and forth collecting plates and delivering other dishes so they won't be washing their hands every time they check the temp of the child's food. Teaching children patience is hard but necessary. Take a small bag of activities and maybe some raisins while they're waiting. Or ask for bread or olives to eat while the main is cooling.

YABU

I’d much rather receive hot food and wait for it to cool than receive something lukewarm and be unsure if it was actually heated through properly.

Also some kids meals will be going to older children who can cope with hot food, it’s not just babies and toddlers.

The reason most restaurants put crap food on children's menus is because that's what sells. For many businesses when they ask children to choose from the adult menu and have smaller portions, or provide healthy children's options, they are met with disapproval that kids don't like that sort of thing. It's the alarming majority of diners who want junk food for their children. I've regularly been asked to provide a children with a bowl of chips or garlic bread as an entire dish. Parents ask for roast dinners that only consist of potatoes and gravy. It depends what the overall demand in each area is like. There are plenty of decent restaurants out there but many people won't pay the costs associated with broader options as they resent paying for their children's meals at all!

MissusGeneHunt - catering ovens are not normal ovens! Irrespective of whether some establishments use microwaves - people know they essentially pay for what they get anyway. A catering oven will cook quickly and the food will be piping hot, as should yours be served at home. You may be able tolerate your own cooking, but these temperatures are legally required to kill bacteria and protect the most vulnerable people. If these laws not followed then heavy penalties and even prison can be enforced. I'd be very wary of any restaurant that allowed a hot children's dish to cool somewhere other than at the diners table, the risk of cross-conitmantion is not being addressed by any legal policies.