What a waste Iftar excess

Dubai:  Most people waste a minimum of 50 per cent of their iftar meals when dining in hotels, revealed food and beverage managers and chefs.

"The average person is rarely able to consume over 400gm of food in one sitting," said City Seasons Dubai's F&B Manager Harish Chander. "And yet, the orders placed always exceed what is consumed."

"While creating our iftar buffets, we prepare an average of 100gm of each dish per person," said Hermann Feigl, Director of Food and Beverage, Grand Millennium, Dubai. "The chef bears in mind the number of diners in the room and prepares amounts accordingly. However, when it comes to à la carte menus, we have very little control over the amount of food people order."

According to the hotel's executive sous chef Ayman Valapil, "The eyes are larger than the stomach. Contrary to what the norm is during daylight hours, this is a month of extravagance when it comes to iftar food. Culturally, people expect their iftar table to be packed with a variety of dishes. It's irrelevant whether they will taste every dish they have ordered. The point seems to be to have so much food available that one is spoilt for choice."

All in abundance

City Seasons' chef Bhupal Tamang elaborates. "When we serve an iftar set menu, there needs to be a variety of dishes on the table. It's considered rude to offer anything less than six or seven starters, followed by salad, soup, the main course and desert.

According to Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), 500 tonnes of food is wasted on a daily basis during Ramadan in the capital. In the face of such massive excesses, what can be done to conserve wastage?

From a hotel's point of view, offer diners as buffet as opposed to a set menu or à la carte services. "With a buffet, we only bring out small quantities of each dish on the table and replenish as per consumption of the food," said Feigl.

Moreover, food that's cleared from the buffet table is moved to the staff canteen. "As most of our dishes are kept in a controlled-temperature prior to being served, the ingredients last longer. As a result, food can be transferred to the staff canteen nine hours after it was first prepared," said Valapil.

However, this only applies to food prepared for buffets. Diners choosing the à la carte option end up wasting copious amounts of their order. "During Ramadan, people order twice the amount they would be able to consume," said Feigl. "People expect bountiful meals during this month, without considering the amount of wastage that occurs as a result."

Spoilt for choice

City Seasons' chef Bhupal Tamang gives the lowdown on iftar wastage: "Assuming a man who is fasting consumes between 300-400gm of food at best we serve a 35gm serving of five hot and five cold mezzeh dishes, plus soup, a 1kg tray of salad, a 500gm plate of mixed grills and a large serving of rice per person, the total adds up to close to 2kg of food per person. So saying that a minimum of 50 per cent of that amount of food is wasted, is being conservative."