Slates, wood or plates?

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fyfin
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Slates, wood or plates?

Postby fyfin » Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:02 pm

I'm a bit old fashioned so was taken aback when my food was served on a slate instead of a plate in our little town in Almeria. Then in the next village a burger with coleslaw and chips was presented on a piece of wood like a chopping board, you know the type they reckon is unhygienic to chop stuff on. It meant we couldn't empty out the little separate containers that everything came in, the chips would have fallen off lol.

This has all happened inside the last 6 months and now the few restaurants that are here seem to be copying each other as slates are being used even in the Indian restaurant. Any request for plates falls on deaf ears and out it comes on a slate - my wife being the stalwart that she is demanded a plate as previously requested so she was given an empty plate to scrape the food onto.

I was chatting to a friend yesterday who is also a bit old fashioned, well he is 82, and his recent part of 13 at the Indian restaurant all said please don't put the food on slates but again totally ignored. The carried on as we Brits do (except for my wife lol) and moaned a bit amongst themselves afterwards.

I just wondered, as there people on here from different parts of Andalucia and probably different age groups, what your thoughts are, and whether you had encountered this trend, which, in fact is not a new trend at all as they have been doing it in "trendy" restaurants in UK for years. Maybe they've even grown out of it by now.
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maureenscot
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby maureenscot » Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:13 pm

Yes a bit of a fad. Elf and safety police saying slates are porous. I suppose it is up to individuals, but a bit cheeky not puting food on a plate when requested

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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby Manchesteral » Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:36 am

fyfin wrote:I'm a bit old fashioned so was taken aback when my food was served on a slate instead of a plate in our little town in Almeria. Then in the next village a burger with coleslaw and chips was presented on a piece of wood like a chopping board, you know the type they reckon is unhygienic to chop stuff on. It meant we couldn't empty out the little separate containers that everything came in, the chips would have fallen off lol.

This has all happened inside the last 6 months and now the few restaurants that are here seem to be copying each other as slates are being used even in the Indian restaurant. Any request for plates falls on deaf ears and out it comes on a slate - my wife being the stalwart that she is demanded a plate as previously requested so she was given an empty plate to scrape the food onto.

I was chatting to a friend yesterday who is also a bit old fashioned, well he is 82, and his recent part of 13 at the Indian restaurant all said please don't put the food on slates but again totally ignored. The carried on as we Brits do (except for my wife lol) and moaned a bit amongst themselves afterwards.

I just wondered, as there people on here from different parts of Andalucia and probably different age groups, what your thoughts are, and whether you had encountered this trend, which, in fact is not a new trend at all as they have been doing it in "trendy" restaurants in UK for years. Maybe they've even grown out of it by now.
I have been a professional chef (and I'm not ashamed to boast about it, with a number of certificates from the cordon bleu organisation) for fifty years ! Food should be presented on a porcelain plate with proper cutlery (unless it's a burger or similar), the people who offer food on builders shovels, wooden boards etc are only trying to be trendy and should be avoided and indeed boycotted, it's *beep*, the food should speak for itself !!

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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby fyfin » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:34 am

Manchesteral, thank you for your comment and a voice of reason. I happened to mention this elsewhere, and was surprised that there were quite a few who raved about presentation being the most important aspect of the "eating experience". I tried to point out that there are many different shapes of plate, and food can be presented nicely on a plate. Frankly, I am more impressed with good service and good food that I am with presentation and haven't been back to the restaurant that ignored our request to put the food on a plate.
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby Stevemul » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:47 am


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Wicksey
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby Wicksey » Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:01 am

I was recently served up a meal in Granada on a wooden plate (it happened to also contain a very long blond hair, so it was sent back, not eaten and not paid for!).

I hate anything other than a plate to eat off. How can they possibly get anything wooden clean as you will cut into it with your knife as you eat so it will score it. Ditto slate, particularly as it's flat and food tends to fall off it. It's an awful fad and I hope that your local restaurants, Fyfin, will eventually get the message that people don't like them. (I am more older than younger generation!)

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fyfin
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby fyfin » Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:12 am

I suppose while we silently put up with it they will continue. We need to be like my wife although to just hand her a plate, and then she had to scrape it off the slate herself, isn't really good service either.
I'm glad I'm not alone though!
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby El Cid » Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:01 am

It's all because of Instagam and those sad people who insist on taking photos of their meal.

A lot of local restaurants are doing it now. The less competent ones just squirt an awful brown sauce all over it. You only need to look at the photos on Trip Advisor.

If you want to see some amazing examples of extreme "modern" presentation, watch "Great British Menu" every weekday night on BBC2.

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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby TorreDelAguila » Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:19 am

Not to mention the dreadful practice of serving hot food on cold plates, near-universal in Spanish restaurants this way it seems.
Particularly sad for fish, which can lose its heat very quickly.

Notable exception is Indian restaurants, where plates are normally piping hot.

BTW, just had an evening meal with friends at Hotel Vinuela, recently under new management. Food and service quite superb, even though they were hosting a garden wedding supper for 350 at the same time!
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby Pamela1 » Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:53 pm

I prefer a plate and i'd much rather serve food on a plate than a slate or wooden board. I can't imagine what it must be like for kitchen staff having a pile of slates or boards to wash and dry, i often wonder if they really do get a good scrub..When i've been to the Chinese i have often wondered if the sizzling iron platter dishes have had the best of cleaning before being used again, i guess it's hard to know and if i was to think about it too hard i'd probably never go.

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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby peteroldracer » Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:32 pm

Re the sizzling platters, if any bug can survive the temperatures they roast these at nothing will kill it!
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Re: Slates, wood or plates?

Postby Wicksey » Wed Aug 29, 2018 11:40 am

That's true, plus you don't eat off it but take the food off to put onto your own plate. I would think it doesn't stay on there long. The wooden plate is the worse as it will get cut by knives as people eat from them.

On a slightly different note, I see a lot of TV chefs now put their raw chicken onto a wooden chopping board to prepare. I thought in professional kitchens they used hard plastic chopping boards coloured to show what it is used for, so the raw meat ones never come in contact with other foodstuffs. It's not a very good example to the watching public who may not be so aware of food hygiene regarding handling raw meat, and chicken in particular.


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