Most Chaotic Breakfast Ever

[Highlands John]

We've had some challenging breakfast services in our time, but this morning topped them all.
We have a group of 6 in at the moment, the problem with groups like this is they all come down together so I end up trying to cook 6 breakfasts at once, it's not possible even on my 7 ring gas cooker. This morning two came down early, so I thought great, I can get them cooked before the others appear. The others come down, first two are cooked, ready on the table for DH to take through, he comes back from the dinning room and says "he wants porridge", "who?", "The first guy"....."But his breakfast is sitting on the table ready to go through and porridge takes 5 minutes". So I tell DH he can either have his porridge afterwards or I can put his eggs, etc in the oven till later, not my fault if it's dry by then.
After that the boiled eggs are too cooked, the poached not enough, the sweet french toast with banana and salted caramel sauce is too sweet, then another wants porridge. Ahh.
Then to cap it all in the middle of everything a jar of beetroot falls off the top of the fridge when I shut the door, cracks and there's beetroot and red vinegar everywhere. So I continue cooking whilst trying not to tread red vinegar all round the kitchen every time I go to the fridge and DH is clearing it up.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

 

[EmptyNest]

Why do you cook whatever they want? set a breakfast menu and they all get the same thing. You are working way to hard at this. You aren't a restaurant.

 

[Generic]

John... simplify. Almost everything except for the eggs can be kept warm in the oven. Just do the eggs last.

 

[Silverspoon]

And make crock pot oatmeal, made the night before and stored in the refrigerator, to have on hand for last minute "porridge" orders.
http://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Apple_Cinnamon_Oatmeal

 

[Madeleine]

I feel your pain. I hate mornings like that. Whenever we have a group it's always something that can be hot held and then plated. Like quiche. Which would not have made a wee bit of difference to you if they were all intent on ordering what they wanted.

 

[gillumhouse]

It is what it is. So all I am going to say is - Poor Baby! I am so sorry.

 

[JBloggs]

Thanks for sharing your morning with us John. It brought a smile when I got to the beetroot all over the floor, it was crying out for a crime scene yellow tape, but that meant stopping to get one put up!
You know, well you probably don't...I began my cook to order breakfasts and two things happened. It stole my thunder...people wanted the boring stuff and although I was dressing them up, it was not the same. I lost the ahhh effect.
Secondly, I too had a group such as yourself. Chaos was exactly the word I used for it. My DH was helping me, and was clueless to the rhythm of the kitchen. So it meant having to explain this to HIM, this to HER etc. It doubled the chaos.
Don't forget to put your shirt on that says "INNKEEPING AINT FOR WIMPS!"
Now the rest of the weekend will go smoothly...

 

[Joey Camb]

Why do you cook whatever they want? set a breakfast menu and they all get the same thing. You are working way to hard at this. You aren't a restaurant..

in the UK its expected that with 6 guests you cook to order - it would go down like a lead balloon if you told them this is what was coming crack on - just isn't done. BB's are expected to compete with hotels and on the breakfast side beat them hands down.
My breakfast this morning was a perfect example - have 17 guests in for a particular conference we have the organisers stay with us and book every room - spend a lot of money and stay extra nights - all have to have eaten their breakfast by 7.30am and be across the road
Breakfast starts service at 6.30am and we did 11 cooked breakfasts (no sausage) I draw the line there as they need advance cooking in the oven and as not getting up at 5.30) the rest had cereal and toast everyone on the road by 7.30 - meant chamber maid could get into the rooms from 8.30 - however the car park is a disaster zone as they had all parked their cars around a van - which went out and left their ruddy cars all day without asking and where would you like the 6 rooms just in 1 night - not in their group who are in tonight to park? especially as the gas people are digging up all the available street parking I can usually use as an overflow to redo the gas mains! this also means the poor residents who live round here have no where to park either! its a loony bin! I keep moving my car to save spaces for guests

 

[birdwatcher]

There would be no way I or my husband and I could do breakfasts to order, unless we had a cook no way even with this small inn. We've always had a set menu for all our guests unless one has a special menu.
Bless you for doing what you John-I would most definitely limit my menu if you want to cater to you guests and those would be a small party....wow-hope you got some relief after b-fast.

 

[Highlands John]

Why do you cook whatever they want? set a breakfast menu and they all get the same thing. You are working way to hard at this. You aren't a restaurant..

in the UK its expected that with 6 guests you cook to order - it would go down like a lead balloon if you told them this is what was coming crack on - just isn't done. BB's are expected to compete with hotels and on the breakfast side beat them hands down.
My breakfast this morning was a perfect example - have 17 guests in for a particular conference we have the organisers stay with us and book every room - spend a lot of money and stay extra nights - all have to have eaten their breakfast by 7.30am and be across the road
Breakfast starts service at 6.30am and we did 11 cooked breakfasts (no sausage) I draw the line there as they need advance cooking in the oven and as not getting up at 5.30) the rest had cereal and toast everyone on the road by 7.30 - meant chamber maid could get into the rooms from 8.30 - however the car park is a disaster zone as they had all parked their cars around a van - which went out and left their ruddy cars all day without asking and where would you like the 6 rooms just in 1 night - not in their group who are in tonight to park? especially as the gas people are digging up all the available street parking I can usually use as an overflow to redo the gas mains! this also means the poor residents who live round here have no where to park either! its a loony bin! I keep moving my car to save spaces for guests
.

Camberley is spot on, in fact we go far beyond what the average B&B round here does (quite deliberately).
We don't take breakfast orders the night before which many B&Bs do (as it says on our website "We don't know what we'll fancy for breakfast tomorrow, so we don't expect you to"), it's all cooked to order there's no sausages partially cooked the night before or any of that lark!!
Apart from the usual juices, cereals, etc we offer a full Scottish cooked, a full vegetarian cooked and two specials each day. Tomorrow it's pancakes (either with scrambled eggs and bacon, or blueberry pancakes with maple syrup) or Scottish smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on toast.
I print the menu the night before (just done tomorrows) so I can change the specials each day so people staying more than 1 night don't see the same menu every morning, it also depends on what's in the fridge and the number and configuration of guests. So tomorrow I have 4 people but I know 2 want an early breakfast which means I can put more complicated dishes on the menu as I know the first two will be at least cooking before the other 2 come down.
Someone recently said on ta that our breakfasts are like a 5 star hotel, that's the sort of reaction I'm aiming for.
It's actually very unusual for all guests to come down at once so I'm not about to change something that puts us head and shoulders above the competition because of something that happens, maybe once a month.
It's an old line but................."We don't do fast food, we do good food as fast as we can".

 

[Madeleine]

Why do you cook whatever they want? set a breakfast menu and they all get the same thing. You are working way to hard at this. You aren't a restaurant..

in the UK its expected that with 6 guests you cook to order - it would go down like a lead balloon if you told them this is what was coming crack on - just isn't done. BB's are expected to compete with hotels and on the breakfast side beat them hands down.
My breakfast this morning was a perfect example - have 17 guests in for a particular conference we have the organisers stay with us and book every room - spend a lot of money and stay extra nights - all have to have eaten their breakfast by 7.30am and be across the road
Breakfast starts service at 6.30am and we did 11 cooked breakfasts (no sausage) I draw the line there as they need advance cooking in the oven and as not getting up at 5.30) the rest had cereal and toast everyone on the road by 7.30 - meant chamber maid could get into the rooms from 8.30 - however the car park is a disaster zone as they had all parked their cars around a van - which went out and left their ruddy cars all day without asking and where would you like the 6 rooms just in 1 night - not in their group who are in tonight to park? especially as the gas people are digging up all the available street parking I can usually use as an overflow to redo the gas mains! this also means the poor residents who live round here have no where to park either! its a loony bin! I keep moving my car to save spaces for guests
.

Camberley is spot on, in fact we go far beyond what the average B&B round here does (quite deliberately).
We don't take breakfast orders the night before which many B&Bs do (as it says on our website "We don't know what we'll fancy for breakfast tomorrow, so we don't expect you to"), it's all cooked to order there's no sausages partially cooked the night before or any of that lark!!
Apart from the usual juices, cereals, etc we offer a full Scottish cooked, a full vegetarian cooked and two specials each day. Tomorrow it's pancakes (either with scrambled eggs and bacon, or blueberry pancakes with maple syrup) or Scottish smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on toast.
I print the menu the night before (just done tomorrows) so I can change the specials each day so people staying more than 1 night don't see the same menu every morning, it also depends on what's in the fridge and the number and configuration of guests. So tomorrow I have 4 people but I know 2 want an early breakfast which means I can put more complicated dishes on the menu as I know the first two will be at least cooking before the other 2 come down.
Someone recently said on ta that our breakfasts are like a 5 star hotel, that's the sort of reaction I'm aiming for.
It's actually very unusual for all guests to come down at once so I'm not about to change something that puts us head and shoulders above the competition because of something that happens, maybe once a month.
It's an old line but................."We don't do fast food, we do good food as fast as we can".
.

So, it sounds like these folks told you what they wanted and then added more or changed their minds.
Stinkers!

 

[Highlands John]

Why do you cook whatever they want? set a breakfast menu and they all get the same thing. You are working way to hard at this. You aren't a restaurant..

in the UK its expected that with 6 guests you cook to order - it would go down like a lead balloon if you told them this is what was coming crack on - just isn't done. BB's are expected to compete with hotels and on the breakfast side beat them hands down.
My breakfast this morning was a perfect example - have 17 guests in for a particular conference we have the organisers stay with us and book every room - spend a lot of money and stay extra nights - all have to have eaten their breakfast by 7.30am and be across the road
Breakfast starts service at 6.30am and we did 11 cooked breakfasts (no sausage) I draw the line there as they need advance cooking in the oven and as not getting up at 5.30) the rest had cereal and toast everyone on the road by 7.30 - meant chamber maid could get into the rooms from 8.30 - however the car park is a disaster zone as they had all parked their cars around a van - which went out and left their ruddy cars all day without asking and where would you like the 6 rooms just in 1 night - not in their group who are in tonight to park? especially as the gas people are digging up all the available street parking I can usually use as an overflow to redo the gas mains! this also means the poor residents who live round here have no where to park either! its a loony bin! I keep moving my car to save spaces for guests
.

Camberley is spot on, in fact we go far beyond what the average B&B round here does (quite deliberately).
We don't take breakfast orders the night before which many B&Bs do (as it says on our website "We don't know what we'll fancy for breakfast tomorrow, so we don't expect you to"), it's all cooked to order there's no sausages partially cooked the night before or any of that lark!!
Apart from the usual juices, cereals, etc we offer a full Scottish cooked, a full vegetarian cooked and two specials each day. Tomorrow it's pancakes (either with scrambled eggs and bacon, or blueberry pancakes with maple syrup) or Scottish smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on toast.
I print the menu the night before (just done tomorrows) so I can change the specials each day so people staying more than 1 night don't see the same menu every morning, it also depends on what's in the fridge and the number and configuration of guests. So tomorrow I have 4 people but I know 2 want an early breakfast which means I can put more complicated dishes on the menu as I know the first two will be at least cooking before the other 2 come down.
Someone recently said on ta that our breakfasts are like a 5 star hotel, that's the sort of reaction I'm aiming for.
It's actually very unusual for all guests to come down at once so I'm not about to change something that puts us head and shoulders above the competition because of something that happens, maybe once a month.
It's an old line but................."We don't do fast food, we do good food as fast as we can".
.

So, it sounds like these folks told you what they wanted and then added more or changed their minds.
Stinkers!
.

Yep.
Some people don't seem to realize that a menu is a list of dishes you can choose between, not an inventory of ingredients for building your own dishes.

 

[Madeleine]

Why do you cook whatever they want? set a breakfast menu and they all get the same thing. You are working way to hard at this. You aren't a restaurant..

in the UK its expected that with 6 guests you cook to order - it would go down like a lead balloon if you told them this is what was coming crack on - just isn't done. BB's are expected to compete with hotels and on the breakfast side beat them hands down.
My breakfast this morning was a perfect example - have 17 guests in for a particular conference we have the organisers stay with us and book every room - spend a lot of money and stay extra nights - all have to have eaten their breakfast by 7.30am and be across the road
Breakfast starts service at 6.30am and we did 11 cooked breakfasts (no sausage) I draw the line there as they need advance cooking in the oven and as not getting up at 5.30) the rest had cereal and toast everyone on the road by 7.30 - meant chamber maid could get into the rooms from 8.30 - however the car park is a disaster zone as they had all parked their cars around a van - which went out and left their ruddy cars all day without asking and where would you like the 6 rooms just in 1 night - not in their group who are in tonight to park? especially as the gas people are digging up all the available street parking I can usually use as an overflow to redo the gas mains! this also means the poor residents who live round here have no where to park either! its a loony bin! I keep moving my car to save spaces for guests
.

Camberley is spot on, in fact we go far beyond what the average B&B round here does (quite deliberately).
We don't take breakfast orders the night before which many B&Bs do (as it says on our website "We don't know what we'll fancy for breakfast tomorrow, so we don't expect you to"), it's all cooked to order there's no sausages partially cooked the night before or any of that lark!!
Apart from the usual juices, cereals, etc we offer a full Scottish cooked, a full vegetarian cooked and two specials each day. Tomorrow it's pancakes (either with scrambled eggs and bacon, or blueberry pancakes with maple syrup) or Scottish smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on toast.
I print the menu the night before (just done tomorrows) so I can change the specials each day so people staying more than 1 night don't see the same menu every morning, it also depends on what's in the fridge and the number and configuration of guests. So tomorrow I have 4 people but I know 2 want an early breakfast which means I can put more complicated dishes on the menu as I know the first two will be at least cooking before the other 2 come down.
Someone recently said on ta that our breakfasts are like a 5 star hotel, that's the sort of reaction I'm aiming for.
It's actually very unusual for all guests to come down at once so I'm not about to change something that puts us head and shoulders above the competition because of something that happens, maybe once a month.
It's an old line but................."We don't do fast food, we do good food as fast as we can".
.

So, it sounds like these folks told you what they wanted and then added more or changed their minds.
Stinkers!
.

Yep.
Some people don't seem to realize that a menu is a list of dishes you can choose between, not an inventory of ingredients for building your own dishes.

.

We get that, too. When I say it's scrambled eggs I get requests for other kinds of eggs. We had a lovely couple last week who were told what the breakfast was and then asked for eggs. They figured we could just turn the French toast eggs into some other egg dish.
And the couple who had no problems until breakfast was being cooked and then there was the whispering in the dining room and then the wander over to the kitchen to mention he didn't eat eggs.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

 

[JBloggs]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it..

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

 

[TheBeachHouse]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it..

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

.

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

We just say continental. No menu. I've thought of listing a menu but we're trying to keep the site clean and easy to navagate. Don't want too many tabs/pages. We do have pictures of our breakfast.
I might use the beyond continental quote in a testimonial list.

 

[Madeleine]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it..

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

.

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

We just say continental. No menu. I've thought of listing a menu but we're trying to keep the site clean and easy to navagate. Don't want too many tabs/pages. We do have pictures of our breakfast.
I might use the beyond continental quote in a testimonial list.
.

Oooh, you're missing an opportunity! Tabs are good! More pages are good! Lots of crap on one page is bad.
My last iteration of the website had 70+ pages! This one has around 40.
More pages = more searchable terms = more ways to be found.

 

[JBloggs]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it..

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

.

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

We just say continental. No menu. I've thought of listing a menu but we're trying to keep the site clean and easy to navagate. Don't want too many tabs/pages. We do have pictures of our breakfast.
I might use the beyond continental quote in a testimonial list.
.

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

We just say continental. No menu. I've thought of listing a menu but we're trying to keep the site clean and easy to navagate. Don't want too many tabs/pages. We do have pictures of our breakfast.
I might use the beyond continental quote in a testimonial list.

Use it, brag about it, and have a photo with it!

 

[Joey Camb]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it..

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

.

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

We just say continental. No menu. I've thought of listing a menu but we're trying to keep the site clean and easy to navagate. Don't want too many tabs/pages. We do have pictures of our breakfast.
I might use the beyond continental quote in a testimonial list.
.

for google - content is king, its why my blog is integrated with the web site, means every new article is content.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it..

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

.

We had a couple from Israel this past week. They were surprised at the amount of food or number of choices. They said, "This is way beyond continental!"
Made us feel good because we would like to put out more 'real' food besides the cereal and baked goods. I guess we're ok.
People treating a home kitchen as a restaurant just don't get it.

Do you say continental on your website? or extended continental or hot continental? I am trying to think of all the wording out there. Yours could say "Beyond Continental"

We just say continental. No menu. I've thought of listing a menu but we're trying to keep the site clean and easy to navagate. Don't want too many tabs/pages. We do have pictures of our breakfast.
I might use the beyond continental quote in a testimonial list.
.

I agree! As a Bed and Breakfast, breakfast needs some prime space and exposure!