Breakfast Dilemma

[richardfreer]

We have a dilemma. We are just a small 5-room Guest House in Devon. VisitBritain have suggested we broaden our breakfast menu beyond the 'Full English & variations', suggesting a fish course, for example.

The problem is two-fold. Because of our size, I can see a very low take-up for alternatives, hence a lot of waste, or production of food straight from the freezer which is anathema to us.

Second problem is that we recognise we could get round this by asking guests what they want for breakfast the night before. However, I hate this when I stay away as it shows the food is not cooked to order, and I think the fact that we cook to order is another strength of our offering. Also, VB discourage this in their criteria for food.

Any thoughts on how to square this circle?

[_Sharpe]

They always suggest a fish course. It must be in the rulebook. Personally, I think kippers smell dreadful.

We have a Breakfast Award and we like to serve fresh and cooked to order breakfasts to our guests. We also don't like to ask them to choose the night before for the same reasons as you do. We have seven rooms. We offer a choice of full English, buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup, cheese omelet with mushrooms (vegetarian) or bacon, healthy choice option of steel cut Scottish oatmeal on a fresh fruit compote with greek yoghurt, honey and muesli, and finally on Sundays only, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs to satisfy the mandatory fish requirement. This gives us the maximum rating for VisitBritain for breakfasts and we find it is quite easy to do even with 14+ guests.

As to the take-up? Most guests order the full English with the omelet being a distant second but the ones who choose the healthy choice or pancakes are really pleased. I dont prepare anything beforehand so there is no waste. Pancakes take about 10 minutes from ordering to the plate going out and it's about the same for the other options.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

I only have 2 - 3 rooms so don't keep large stocks of anything. But I offer a daily special which is sometimes fish, either smoked salmon or smoked haddock. I often tell guests in advance what the next day's special will be. They invariably then tell me if they want it or not, which means I can defrost some fish if I don't have any in the fridge. Because we're so small, I usually get to know guests very quickly and often just ask them if there's anything specific on the sample menu that they fancy, then I'll make sure I offer it to them during their stay.
I think we have to balance what VB want with what is practical to offer and what avoids waste.

[Der Alte Fritz]

We have a dilemma. We are just a small 5-room Guest House in Devon. VisitBritain have suggested we broaden our breakfast menu beyond the 'Full English & variations', suggesting a fish course, for example.


I take it this suggestion is from your hotel inspector - VB or someone else?
I assume you just offer eggs (fried -any other varieties?) bacon sausage, toms, beans, mushrooms.

If so why not look at things like Porridge which being dry goods can be stored and prepped in a microwave in a short time. Cold smoked salmon and scrambled egg is another alternative, a bit posher yet easy to prepare and smoked fish keeps for a long period in the fridge and can be bought in small packets. Kedgeree is another fish dish that can be prepped quickly but you would be wanting to use fresh fish. But at least you can use 'off cuts' and not the more expensive whole fish. Pancakes - a la American is another good idea as a batter costs little, can be prepared and stored over night and can be cooked in minutes. How about Coddled eggs with cheese? These are cooked in a small ceramic ramekin and cheese sprinkled on top. Quick to cook. Continental breakfast? - Ham cheese and some fancy bread or a croissant (again they freeze well due to the high fat content and can be defrosted in the microwave (choose the smaller ones they go quicker) and then finished off in the oven. French toast - essentially eggy bread fried in a pan with a little oil and then sprinkled with cinnamon and maple syrup.
Sounds great - can I come and stay!

We have 10 rooms and do these options about once a breakfast.

[_Judith]

I do as lot of the others have suggested and offer smoked salmon and scrambled eggs as a special dish twice a week, usually Sunday and Wednesday, this gets around the problem and you do not have to order or keep loads in stock.
Jx

[Martin]

We have smoked salmon subject to availability. We source ours from the Co-op, and stock up when it's half price (£3 for 3 portions). We defrost a new pack when we get down to one portion left. Within the above, it's first come first served, unless someone requests it the night before.

We also offer local kipper fillets, which are kept frozen, pinged in the microwave, and then poached in the oven until serving. There is absolutely no problem with this method in terms of quality.

Cheers,

Martin.

[Susan Thomas]

I run a similar size establishment. Over the years i have developed a breakfast order the my guests can chose the breakfast they want.This is done the night before.

This allows me to cooked a fresh breakfast for the time they require it, and not have any food cooked and waitng for hours to be served.
It has also cut down on a tremendous amount of waste.I have had many compliments on my breakfasts and am a proud winner of the Breakfast Award.A simple fish breakfast Scambled or poached eggs on toasted english muffins topped with smoked salmon (which can be frozen in single portions)guests love this as a change.

[Kathleen Maddon]

hear hear quite agree

[imported_]

We can't see a problem with leaving a breakfast selector in the guests bedroom to complete and leave outside their door by 9pm.This way we can offer a full menu, including smoked salmon, every day of the year.We simply remove any produce not in the fridge from the freezer ready for the next morning.This way there is little or no waste, which we feel is beneficial to our guests, otherwise they are missing out on choice.
We have asked for constuctive comments from our guests and they are more than happy with this service and this is backed up by us receiving fourteen 5 star reviews on Tripadvisor.

[imported_]

I have a two bedroom B & B. I also have started to do smoked salmon with scrambled egg,s the guests love it. Also the salmon freezes well, buy it on special offer, you can slice it from frozen & it defrost's quickly. I love it.

[_Sharpe]

If you cook it to order when they've sat down and looked at the breakfast menu, then it is truly freshly prepared and there is absolutely no waste. Prepping food in advance isn't really necessary.

[Starchip]

I disagree with richardfreer.

Keep in mind that I am a small B&B - six guests max.

I always ask my guests for their breakfast order the afternoon/night before or, with guests that stay for more than one night, just after the breakfast I have served them. This is a good time to ask them because if they say "Same again please" then you know you have done something right. If they don't then you can critically examine what you served. Might not be your breakfast but it is always worth analysis.

I do this for two reasons;

1. I do not have the storage space to be able to react to all possible orders in the morning. I may have to go shopping. Twenty minutes gone right there and I haven't even started cooking.

2. I don't care how you cook - a sausage takes 15-20 mins. Or hospital. Or black outside and pink inside. I would not want to sit twiddling my thumbs for 20 mins waiting for my brekkie. I would find things to complain about or to.

My guests are not here because of my brekkie - no, they want to get out there and be tourists. Don't get me wrong - I serve a lovely breakfast, I do Haddock fillet poached in milk with a poached egg on top for example. Go on, you try balancing a poached egg on a haddock fillet. Not a skill that I thought would appear in my life.

Anyway, I have never had even a mild harrumph from a guest when I ask for tomorrow's breakfast order.

Just my 4 star's worth.......but diamonds are forever.......

[richardfreer]

A mixture of helpful advice (thanks) and otherwise. I guess the smoked salmon idea (from "Martin" with variations from others) is probably best as we can freeze in small portions and bring out on demand, perhaps with a little help from the wretched ping machine. We'll have to try this when we have a good house full, and see what the take-up is like.

As I specifically mentioned that I dislike the idea of getting orders the night before, the suggestions that we get guests to order the night before were, at best, unwelcome!! When I stay away, I would not want to be asked 12 hours before I eat what it is that I would like to eat 12 hours later, therefore I would not make our guests do that.

[_Sharpe]

We serve locally made chipolata sausages that take ten minutes to cook. We get lots of favorable comments and they never go out black on the outside and red inside. I don't like huge bangers!

When I'm the guest, I prefer not to order the night before although I'd never say so to the host. I prefer not to make my own toast as well. Just one of those things and everyone's different so you have to do what you're comfortable with.

[bandbshrewsbury]

I don't see how asking guests what they want the night before implies that the breakfast will not be freshly cooked. We ask guests to complete a form the night before but cook everything freshly for each guest - we are a small B&B so the forms give us something to aim for.

We also say that they guests are welcome to change their minds in the morning.

We too are highly regarded on Tripadvisor and the guests rave about the breakfasts.

Having said all that I think at some point we will move to cooking breakfasts to order but the guests will end up waiting longer and in my opinion, fried sausage and hash browns will always be second best to oven baked ones.

[Erik_Hamburger]

We have just 3 rooms sleeping a max. of 5 people but still manage to offer a lot of choices.
The usual standard 'English Breakfast' ingredients are always in stock: Eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, baked beans, fried bread, mushrooms. Guest can order whatever they like, in any combination they like, as much as they like.
In addition to the fresh produce we stock black pudding, kippers, smoked haddock, smoked salmon and cold-smoked trout. Guests are requested to orders these the night before and we simply admit to them that due to low sales volumes these products are kept in the freezer. No problem at all.

Also, be creative. Take for example smoked haddock: If i have a few portions defrosted on day 1 they will be offered on our 'special' black-board menu as 'poached smoked haddock with poached eggs'. If that doesn't sell, on day 2 I may offer an Omelette Arnold Bennett. If still can't sell it, on day 3 the special board shows Kedgeree. By day 4 my teenage sons will have eaten any left-overs!

[cclark]

We use vaccum packed kippers from Morrisons and the guests love them, you can freeze them when you havent got any takers.