Catering - Simple food for all

[Grandad]

Thank god we invented flapjacks to replace this horror - along with proper shorts, decent brakes, back-pockets, derailleurs ...


[I must confess I'd never heard of oven-cooked slices - are they hard, like a flapjack? Oh hang on - I can eat flapjacks now ... ]

We had back pockets as well, sagging down onto the back wheel when wet.

Yes, flapjack made with rice is the perfect description.

[Ian H]

I make an enormous vegetable stew.  Sweet potatoes go in early to thicken.  Potatoes, swede, turnip according to availability, for bulk. Onions, leeks, garlic, red/green/yellow peppers for colour and flavour.  Green beans. Add some mixed spice or what-have-you.  Serve with bread.

You can put almost any vegetable in.  Suitable for everyone.

[Exit Stage Left]

The danger with big pans of stew, is that it catches on the bottom. It stretches the limits of politeness to eat your way through a bowlful of burnt-tasting gloop.

[Ian H]

Slow-cooking in the Aga and using a heavy-bottomed pan obviates that here.

[Exit Stage Left]

A microwave to warm up individual portions is a good idea when the field is spread out.

[Chris S]

A microwave to warm up individual portions is a good idea when the field is spread out.

From experience working in the kitchen on the BCM600; reliance on a microwave can be an horrendous bottleneck during peak flow - especially if your first and second courses both rely on it (eg: Stew then Rice pud).

[Exit Stage Left]

It's more for the stragglers, when the pan may have been through a number of cycles. The later controls on a 400+ ride.

[JonJo]

I make an enormous vegetable stew.  Sweet potatoes go in early to thicken.  Potatoes, swede, turnip according to availability, for bulk. Onions, leeks, garlic, red/green/yellow peppers for colour and flavour.  Green beans. Add some mixed spice or what-have-you.  Serve with bread.

You can put almost any vegetable in.  Suitable for everyone.

Unless you happen to be allergic to pepppers (or anything else for that matter). Don't think food exists that's suitable for everyone.

[T42]

It took me a while when I started Audaxing to get used to cold rice pudding (always heated at home).

Oh gawd. This reminds me of a mountain brevet (BCMF) I did in 2004. The weather was cold & wet, we were all cold and wet, and they served lunch halfway down a long, cold, wet descent. We were served pre-packed meals straight out of the fridge. The rice pudding wasn't cold, it was glacial.  The only warm drink available was coffee in tiny cups. Shudder.

[Bairn Again]

Its taken me many years to conclude that the best approach is to delegate it to the professionals via commercial controls. 

[hellymedic]

I make an enormous vegetable stew.  Sweet potatoes go in early to thicken.  Potatoes, swede, turnip according to availability, for bulk. Onions, leeks, garlic, red/green/yellow peppers for colour and flavour.  Green beans. Add some mixed spice or what-have-you.  Serve with bread.

You can put almost any vegetable in.  Suitable for everyone.

Unless you happen to be allergic to pepppers (or anything else for that matter). Don't think food exists that's suitable for everyone.

This, in spades.

Sorry!

[whosatthewheel]

I make an enormous vegetable stew.  Sweet potatoes go in early to thicken.  Potatoes, swede, turnip according to availability, for bulk. Onions, leeks, garlic, red/green/yellow peppers for colour and flavour.  Green beans. Add some mixed spice or what-have-you.  Serve with bread.

You can put almost any vegetable in.  Suitable for everyone.

Unless you happen to be allergic to pepppers (or anything else for that matter). Don't think food exists that's suitable for everyone.

everyone as in the vast majority of people. Reading this forum one would get the impression the entry fee for an Audax with food must be in the hundreds of pounds... multiple courses, varied menu and alternatives for all the 200 major variants of food intolerance...

...whereas...

[mattc]

It isn't much extra effort to have another option - even controls/HQ that only have "tea-n-biscuits" usually have 2 types of biccie and a coffee option

(And I've catered for 30 riders with several different sandwich fillings + cakes. On an event with 50+, economies of scale start coming in. )

Nice to see Aidan making an effort, I'm sure it will pay off 

[alwyn]

Pre-chewed meat always seems to work very well at controls I've catered. Sausages vanish as soon as you serve them, and corned beef hash is very popular.

Whatever you decide though, I think it's best to cook whatever you enjoy cooking. I like baking, so I make bread and cake for my controls even though it would be much easier to buy them in.

[zigzag]

remembering the years when i was growing up - i can't recall a single person who was alergic/intolerant/fussy to any type of food. this kind of discussion wouldn't even make sense, everyone ate whatever was served. also no fast/junk food or obesity problem.
just an observation how times change

[barakta]

remembering the years when i was growing up - i can't recall a single person who was alergic/intolerant/fussy to any type of food. this kind of discussion wouldn't even make sense, everyone ate whatever was served. also no fast/junk food or obesity problem.
just an observation how times change

To be fair, there is now an increase in food allergies and medics don't understand why - it's a major area of research.

Also when you were a lad some people DID have allergies/intolerances but didn't get diagnosed so were ill or died from the immediate (anaphylaxis) or less immediate consequences (bowel cancers from coeliac disease for example).

[veloboy]

remembering the years when i was growing up - i can't recall a single person who was alergic/intolerant/fussy to any type of food. this kind of discussion wouldn't even make sense, everyone ate whatever was served. also no fast/junk food or obesity problem.
just an observation how times change

Weird (or not), exactly how I remember growing up in this country and the USA!

[Exit Stage Left]

Anyone growing up in Britain the 1960s was brought up by parents who thought that tinned salmon, peach slices, bartlett pear halves and carnation milk were the food of the gods; Ambrosia in fact. The idea of not liking rice pudding is incomprehensible.

True Proustian catering would include Birds trifle and mushroom Vol au Vents.

[Charlie Polecat]

[Weird (or not), exactly how I remember growing up in this country and the USA!
[/quote]

Me too. Nowadays giving people the option of being fussy or offended means that more people are fussy and offended.

The thing that concerns me - being of a particular nubile age - is if a woman looks at me in a certain way whilst I am cycling wearing my rather fetching lycra tights and off-the-shoulder helmet, should I get her name and report her for sexual harassment?

[CrinklyLion]

remembering the years when i was growing up - i can't recall a single person who was alergic/intolerant/fussy to any type of food. this kind of discussion wouldn't even make sense, everyone ate whatever was served. also no fast/junk food or obesity problem.
just an observation how times change

To be fair, there is now an increase in food allergies and medics don't understand why - it's a major area of research.

Also when you were a lad some people DID have allergies/intolerances but didn't get diagnosed so were ill or died from the immediate (anaphylaxis) or less immediate consequences (bowel cancers from coeliac disease for example).

Best part of 40 years ago at my (teeny tiny) primary school one of my classmates was dairy/egg/some other stuff I can't remember allergic.  In his case it didn't quite cause anaphylaxis but did cause his asthma to go bonkers (quite scary to witness) and his eczema to get so bad that his skin basically fell off.  A few years later in secnodary I had a different friend who was allergic to gluten in a prescribed-bread-by-the-GP sort of way.  And a couple of years after that a friend in the youth group who had a list as long as your arm of stuff that could kill her.

[hellymedic]

Really ESL?
AA Milne, who wrote this, died before we were born.
Not everyone like rice pudding!

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I've promised her dolls and a daisy-chain,
And a book about animals - all in vain -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well, and she hasn't a pain;
But, look at her, now she's beginning again! -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I've promised her sweets and a ride in the train,
And I've begged her to stop for a bit and explain -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain,
And it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again!
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

Lactose intolerance has been well-described in Oriental people and kids after diarrhoeal illness for ages.

Nut allergy is interesting; it seems to have increased dramatically here but there's far less in Israel, where babies eat large quantities of peanut butter coated potato snacks. It can be fatal so sufferers are very wary.

[zigzag]

i'm not saying food allergies and intolerances did not exist "back then", but those were (or seemed to be) extremely rare cases compared to this day and age.
people were grateful for food* on their tables.

* which was usually cooked from scratch using natural ingredients

[Charlie Polecat]

Anyone growing up in Britain the 1960s was brought up by parents who thought that tinned salmon, peach slices, bartlett pear halves and carnation milk were the food of the gods; Ambrosia in fact. The idea of not liking rice pudding is incomprehensible.

True Proustian catering would include Birds trifle and mushroom Vol au Vents.

Quite right. Ambrosia rice pudding beats all other survival food.

[Exit Stage Left]

Really ESL?
AA Milne, who wrote this, died before we were born.

Exactly, his parents didn't live through rationing, and sweet rationing into the 1950s. We had a selection box at Christmas, an orange in our stockings, and jelly featured big in our lives. But we didn't get served tripe, or black pudding, which had been staples before the arrival of tinned food.

[barakta]

My maternal grandpa was born in 1920 and died in 2005. He did NOT eat vegetables. I believe he NEVER ate vegetables despite coming from a culture where beating children for misbehaviour was the norm.

I suspect a wider range of foods are normal in our current society than in preceding decades. Hence some older folk getting into "I don't eat that foreign muck" stuff about foods which my generation considered normal and ordinary like rice and pizza and pasta and curry. Or jokes about Millenials all wasting their money on avocados which are no longer as expensive, rare or posh as they were perceived in the 70s and 80s...

Food is incredibly culturally and classly bound - tribalism is manifested in food choices. It's one of the areas one of my volunteering event groups cannot get agreement on. One person's "that's skanky not food" about white bread and Tesco value ham slices is another person's "that's my normal daily food". Conversely one person's I only eat fresh seedy bread cos anything else is inedible is another person's "yuck, weird seedy posh intimidating pretentious food"...  I've seen people who love one another dearly nearly end up falling out over "food choices" for events and have to agree to leave them self-catering.

Obviously Audax organisers are in a different boat, but ultimately I think it comes down to sensible advance info on the kind of food served based on broad acceptability and inclusion criteria and improve based on feedback if possible but accept you can't please everyone.