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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Grazing tables...wtf?

185 replies

BiffChipsandKippers · 14/02/2023 22:20

Anyone seen this craze for just dumping a load of food in a table as the catering at a party? AIBU that this is unhygienic and gross?

OP posts:
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8
kateandme · 15/02/2023 05:46

44PumpLane · 14/02/2023 22:33

I find the idea of them pretty gross but how's this for madness.....we went to a 4 year olds birthday party with a professional grazing table!!!!

4 year olds!!!!!

It made me grimace thinning about it and I ran my kids up there first and carefully did their plates......after that it was a mass of grubby hands and sneezes!

I do find they look impressive until people start at them.

you just made me google 4 year old grazing table

kateandme · 15/02/2023 05:48

its the rise of instagram isnt it. this is instagramable shit.
i can name a few influencers who have had them for themselves and kids. and tagging and thanking and crying over them and tagging the wonderful companys that did it for them

kateandme · 15/02/2023 05:50

are we talking about this because of the grazing tables at the grammys?

rexythedinosaur · 15/02/2023 05:50

I don't think they are 'gross' really - no less hygeinic than a normal buffet - and I don't care too much about food touching.

But still, there's something deeply unappealing about them!

I think it's simply my sense of order - as soon as people start eating from this it will just be a big mess and it will be hard to find what you want!

KickHimInTheCrotch · 15/02/2023 06:06

I don't care about food touching or the hygiene side of things much (although the lack of care for allergy sufferers is pretty poor) but it's pretty naff and a lot of food is going to be wasted.

magicthree · 15/02/2023 06:15

RenegadeMasterx · 15/02/2023 03:42

If I went to an event with one of these you can bet my arse I wouldn't eat a thing off it. Everyone's filthy mitts delving into a pile of food that's just been chucked out of packets and thrown onto a table Confused no thanks

Most of us don't socialise with people who have "filthy mitts" when they eat. Honestly, what a ridiculous thing to say. The food is most certainly not "thrown onto a table" - grow up!!! Incidentally, those of us who have eaten at an event with one of these suffered no ill effects. Every day I give thanks that the people I know in real life are nothing like many of the posters on MN.

Wiltinglettuce · 15/02/2023 06:50

I never like the look of a grazing table.

Just have visions of someone in a mohair jumper reaching over for the breadsticks at the back, leaning all over the chorizo and pickles!

ethelredonagoodday · 15/02/2023 06:50

Not for me. Agree they are unappealing. And as some others have said, in the same category as 'insta-worthy' balloon arches, 'live, laugh, love' signs and gender reveal parties.

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 15/02/2023 06:53

It's a no from me.

Figmentof · 15/02/2023 06:53

I have never seen it personally in real life, but I wouldn’t call it a craze, it has been around fir about fifteen years.

catmothertes1 · 15/02/2023 06:54

The worst I've seen proudly displayed on F/B had mini eclairs/profiteroles in the mix. I don't want my pudding to have touched a pork pie or a slice of salami! Plus,how come we never see the 5 minutes after people have starting eating pictures?

Natsku · 15/02/2023 06:54

They look nice before anyone touches them but as a Coeliac I wouldn't go near one, absolute nightmare. I wouldn't mind my own personal table full of food though Grin

Everydayitsgettingcloser · 15/02/2023 07:00

I am not icked out by food touching other food as I am not 5 but it seems like a terrible idea from an allergy/dietary preferences standpoint.

Wrongsideofpennines · 15/02/2023 07:01

I've just seen photos of ones friends have done but I don't really like it. They look kinda nice but still a bit weird.

My husband and daughter are vegetarian and wouldn't eat if something meaty has touched anything veggie. So this would just be a complete nightmare. But I guess you cater for your guests so maybe that wouldn't matter.

liveforsummer · 15/02/2023 07:05

Everydayitsgettingcloser · 15/02/2023 07:00

I am not icked out by food touching other food as I am not 5 but it seems like a terrible idea from an allergy/dietary preferences standpoint.

It's not just the idea of it touching though, it's the result especially after it's been there a while. Fruit juices making crackers soggy, salami leaving its flavour on cheese or salad, crumbs getting spread in to things etc

Pseudonamed · 15/02/2023 07:05

I have always found it funny how people think these are new things. My parents did these in the 80's when having get togethers. We still do them as a family here or with friends but nothing is just thrown onto the table and underneath there are dividers between different things like meats and things. We are all fairly hygenic people too!

Zanatdy · 15/02/2023 07:06

It’s not a buffet as the food goes directly on the table / table cloth. I guess in reality if the tablecloth is perfectly clean it’s fine, but I personally use plates

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 15/02/2023 07:08

Pseudonamed · 15/02/2023 07:05

I have always found it funny how people think these are new things. My parents did these in the 80's when having get togethers. We still do them as a family here or with friends but nothing is just thrown onto the table and underneath there are dividers between different things like meats and things. We are all fairly hygenic people too!

Is that not just a buffet?

BCxx · 15/02/2023 07:21

I’m a vegetarian and I just generally hate the idea of even veggie food touching like that but every time I see it in someone’s Instagram etc I just think, if I was there I wouldn’t be able to eat anything 🙈 Baffles me that people think it’s good. Sometimes it’s just directly sitting on their kitchen table

HaveYouSeenNancy · 15/02/2023 07:27

rumporolypolyofthebailey · 15/02/2023 02:23

For fucks sake wish I hadn't googled images for that! They look like the table they used to put together for those horrible "you are what you eat" type programmes where they put what some poor obese person consumed in a week. Good lord no, just no, definitely no

Thank you! I was trying to think of what they reminded me of, and that's exactly what they look like.

There is no way I could eat from one, unless I was the first person to help myself. I also struggle a bit with buffets as the sandwiches have been touched by the person who took the neighbouring sandwiches. I try not to over think it and wish I could lighten up like everyone else, but I'd simply rather go hungry.

HyacinthineMacaw · 15/02/2023 07:33

The food touching objection isn’t about 5 year old ick, as someone suggested, but about wet foods making crisp foods soggy and inedible, strong flavours attaching themselves to other foods, and cross contamination. It not only changes textures and makes food unpleasant to eat, but increases food waste, as you can’t separate things back out. It’s also poor from a food hygiene point of view, with the same deli meats out at room temperature for hours. Listeria and crackers, anyone? With a buffet, you might serve the same foods, but replenish from the fridge as things are eaten. Much more pleasant.

Rather than being appetising, grazing tables look like such a picture of excess and greed that I feel slightly nauseous just looking at photos. They remind me of Mr Creosote, post explosion. Revolting.

Herja · 15/02/2023 07:34

They look like the monstrosity my DS forms on a plate when at a buffet. Happily, he is a hygenic wee lad when taking the food from plates, it just looks grim by the times he's wedged it all together, so as he's happy, I leave him to it. I couldn't eat something like that unless I was desperate. It just looks very, very handled and thus deeply odd putting. Like cakes with lots of shaped fondant - I just look at them and think that was all squidged like playdough and now I'm meant to eat it... Food that looks heavily poked at and prodded, just turns my stomach no matter how seemingly fancy.

Shade17 · 15/02/2023 07:41

They’re fucking rank

WonderingWanda · 15/02/2023 07:48

Whenever I see people doing them with hot foods like chilli and Nacho's all I can think is that it will go cold super fast and be revolting. Also that it seems an expensive way of doing it, you need a lot more food to cover a table than if you plate it up.

Moveoverdarlin · 15/02/2023 07:49

The thing that bothers me about grazing tables is that it’s never particularly substantial food. I get it in the fact you’re supposed to ‘graze’, but we went to a 50th party and they had their entire kitchen island as a grazing table but essentially the most fulfilling thing was some crackers and cheese, it’s not like providing proper party food, everyone was starving and gorging on pistachio nuts and some grapes. And like others have said, when some people arrived later, it just looked like a mass of left over crumbs, lumps of cheese, the odd blueberry here and there. It looked fab at the start and on Instagram, and I think that was the hosts aim.