Grazing tables - my anxiety is rising even to type these words!

[thankyouforthedayz]

Does anyone else feel anxious at the prospect of a grazing table? All that food; all rammed together and TOUCHING. What on earth do the remains look like after being stripped by the vultures? Ive never been to one, but my friend from work specialises in them and is threatening to invite us all round to imbibe. I'm already running for the hills.

The number of things that MNers find 'yuck', gross or vile, or which make them cringe, retch, shudder or have anxiety attacks is truly astonishing. And I'm no stranger to anxiety myself.

@thankyouforthedayz
I would be happy to eat at a grazing table
along as people only pick up exactly what they eat at the grazing platter,

Looks like a much more posher version of pork scratchings and a bowl of peanuts 🥜 at pub bar ..🍸

Just think 🤔 how many hands have passed through money notes from the cash hole in the wall and in everyday life doing food shopping and other kinds of cash transactions in life..

Nobody worries about bacteria germs dirty fingers receving wads of wonga money L.o.l 🤣

Don't forget Mumsnet favourite 'it gives me the ick' which sounds like something a toddler would say.

Yuck... see these all the time and they make me feel queasy. That good has all been handled, probably out at room temp for too long, others will have a rummage, there will be lots of waste.
I think they are done for effect but in reality just wasteful and unhygienic...

I bloody love a good buffet, but those confusing buffets with grazing tables clearly haven't seen one 😁
I've not seen one in RL but have seen them on the likes of TikTok.
Basically just a load of food all laid on a table squished together, no plates or anything, just straight on the table.
Bet it looks an even bigger mess after everyone has grabbed stuff off it

To me it's like an indoors picnic in a big of pretentious way to try to impress people at get gatherings..

Typo mistake big

I hate the idea of grazing tables because it seems as though their main aim is to present something which is visually stunning rather than concentrating on providing food that is delicious. When it comes to food I prefer the focus to be on the taste!

In my experience, a normal buffet would still have tongs or some sort of serving utensil,

Only for hot food or salad. If it is just sandwiches, crisps, crudites and other easy to eat finger food they don't.

The number of things that MNers find 'yuck', gross or vile, or which make them cringe, retch, shudder or have anxiety attacks is truly astonishing.

I agree @AllProperTeaIsTheft

In fairness I have never seen a grazing table, just grazing boards for one or two people, whch is fine by me.

I do indeed have many allergies, but I'm enough of a grown up to be able to manage my allergies and what I consume. If I'm unsure, I don't eat it.

Still can't understand the "anxiety" here, it's a grazing table. Don't like it, don't eat it. Stop making such a fuss.

Well you can't eat anything from a grazing table with allergies can you moose? Everything has possibly been in contact with every other item and touched by various hands. Carrying an epi-pen isn't a back up for risking it at a grazing table, you just don't take those risks in the first place.

I thought the pandemic would have killed them off but sadly they seem to have bounced back.

I don't like the idea that other guests will have fingered my food. With a buffet- we'll I'm a little bit the same about a buffet, but at least the food is usually easy for finger pickers to take one thing and not touch much else in the process, and people generally only do it once maybe twice. "Grazing" sounds like it encourages people to take a little and often, which exponentially increases the number of times food is touched, and with everything so tightly packed in you can't help but touch food that is next to what you pick up, or reach over and casually brush your arm or sleeve over food to reach the thing that you fancy in the middle of the table.

It's also the same food being left out for hours, rather than spare food being kept refrigerated and brought out to replenish as and when - not good for food hygiene not for reducing food waste.

Plates and knives and forks exist for a reason.
I see a grazing table and inwardly groan . Yuk

Yes but you’re not putting the cash/ coins in your mouth! (Hopefully!) 😅

I do indeed have many allergies, but I'm enough of a grown up to be able to manage my allergies and what I consume. If I'm unsure, I don't eat it.

Still can't understand the "anxiety" here, it's a grazing table. Don't like it, don't eat it. Stop making such a fuss.

So you swerve grazing tables then?

Like PP?

Exactly, and my allergy is the nightshade family so everything from tomatoes to peppers, I'm also allergic to nuts, strawberries and coconut so, I don't eat from grazing tables (or buffets in public) but still don't understand the anxiety here!

Typical MN overreaction as usual..

@MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel you don't need to understand anyone else's anxiety. Nor can you, unless you've walked in that person's shoes. Anxieties are often illogical. That doesn't make them any less real to the anxious person.

I wouldn't want to eat from a grazing table. Don't really enjoy eating from a buffet either. I don't want people mithering me to eat when I don't want to. I don't want to have to explain why I'm not eating. If i was going to an event where I knew there would be a grazing table I'd have a degree of anxiety about it. I don't expect you to understand that. It's my anxiety, not yours.

Has anyone actually seen a grazing table in real life/attended an event where the buffet was a grazing table?

I have only ever come across them as a discussion on here. I don't follow the kind of social media that pictures them and have never seen one in real life. Grazing boards for two to share - yes, a whole table - no.

I wouldn't want to eat from a grazing table that has had random strangers digging into it, but I don't have a problem with traditional buffets where you can help yourself.

Surely, anyone turning up at an event where there was a grazing table that they didn't want to partake in would maybe just not eat, leave early for some food or just buy some crisps to keep yourself going?

Show pineapple. The caterer must have been a MNer!

Grazing table just reminds me of the film Platform.

Just gross and kind of stinks of showy, greedy opulence. Like, here's a mountain of food we will just sweep all the leftover into a bin when everyone's finished eating. No consideration for waste and those without enough food.

You can't save any of it as it's all been mixed together.

We had one at our end of year work function. It was delicious and everyone enjoyed it. However we are normal people, not MN oddballs!

@ODFOx - I've always thought of them as stunt pineapples - but I get your point 😂

Well, quite. Grazing is what livestock do, or people who don't eat proper meals.

Has anyone actually seen a grazing table in real life/attended an event where the buffet was a grazing table?

Yeah. A first birthday and a baby shower. Both were fine. Everyone used cocktail sticks to pick up what they wanted; and paper plates. Most people don’t behave like animals. There’s always the odd chance they will, but that exists at buffets, too.

There was a clear part labelled for vegetarians; and people with allergies had been catered for separately at the birthday. I’m not sure there was anyone with allergies at the baby shower but there were only a few of us.

It was laid out in a “meal” type layout, with snacks (slices of peppers etc) followed by standard buffet style food and then desserts at the end, so nothing weird was touching, that I noticed. Someone hovered around each one topping things up, like they would with a buffet.

I wouldn’t have one and couldn’t be bothered making one but it wasn’t half as bad as this thread makes it sound like it’ll be. The food was good; people were refrained; nobody stood licking their fingers and picking through the party rings.

Don't see the point of these. What's wrong with putting things on platters or bowls? The whole concept is just... weird. Why you'd skip the tableware and throw everything onto the table is beyond me.
I'm not an animal, and I definitely don't want to graze off a table.