Memorial Day BBQ Strategy

During my 1st year at UVA in 2016, I happened to fall into the Top 20 users of the dining hall in the entire 16,000 person university. I probably swiped in 5x / day.

Every dining hall swipe is access to a complementary (prepaid in tuition but felt free since the school mandated it for freshmen) all-you-can-eat buffet of food.

It’s important to note my super unfair advantage in the dining hall game. My dorm (Lile-Maupin) was the closest possible dorm to any dining hall in the school. This feature equiped me with the most important tool, proximity, to win this prize, which was simply a 10 minute interview by a school rep peppering me with questions about my dining hall experience.

The real victory from this accomplishment is a go-to fun fact about myself

But what I really learned throughout the journey of daily all-you-can-eat buffets is a simple yet overlooked concept: portion control.

American vs European Diet

If you go to a small cafe in Europe and order a sandwich, one thing you’d notice is you aren’t stuffed after eating that sandwich. There’s a certain level of satisfaction coupled with a level of “I could eat more” — naturally wired into our American brains. But over time, as I constantly got served normal-sized portions over time, I came to realize that I felt better in the “I could eat more” state than in the “I can’t move state.” Especially come dinner time, not only do I feel better now, but I sleep better and thus feel better the next day as well.

This new worldview also gave me a new understanding food. While I still love a family style Italian restaurant, I am a sucker for tasting menus as there is no decision that needs to be made on quantity. It’s already chosen - just there to experience it.

Michellin Star Lesson

One significant learning experience I draw on is my Le Bernadin experience at age 14. My uncle took me to by far the nicest restaurant I had been to in my life. And while the food was incredible, one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is 5 Glasses of Water and 7 pieces of bread I ate before we got to course 3/10. Obviously I had no room in the tank way too early in the meal. I’ll never forget that moment. Servers wanted me happy so they gave me what I thought I had wanted, yet what I really wanted was the fancy salmon dish that I could barely swallow. Ever since that moment there has always been a siren going off on my head when the bread comes to the table.

Look I still occasionally overeat — like Tuesday Night’s Mole. I was STUFFED after that meal. Irresponsible amounts of Mole consumed.

Though at this point of my life, I operate on automatic with regards to the all-you-can-eat.

Now, I will share this automatic instinct with you.

How to feel good after the all-you-can-eat

Below is a random assortment of my personal principles to leave an all you can eat buffet feeling great:

• You are in a battle against getting full. If you get full before you eat the “best” dish of the night, you are screwed and you will eat past fullness

• Treat the buffet like a meal. Serve yourself courses. The split of an Appetizer, Entre, and Dessert Course forces you to control portions as you want to save some appetite for the next course

• Servers will serve you like their one singular item is the highlight of the meal. They are paid to make you happy — and as Americans, the bigger the steak to show to the person next to you, the happier we are. But in reality, the only possible way to eat a steak, hamburger, hot dog, sausage, chicken, brisket, ribs, pizza, dessert, etc. in one sitting is by taking an infinitely small amount of each and extracting maximum enjoyment out of every bite. Otherwise, the battle is lost

• Healthy Food does not balance out unhealthy food. If you had a Hamburger, Hot Dog, and 3 Ribs, the 4 Carrots you eat will not make that food suddenly disappear.

• Intentionally think about eating slower. The slower you eat, the more time the body has to alert you of fullness — which will be the mental signal needed to resist further temptation. Better to retrieve the signal at the table than in the car on the way back, where you get 3x the signal.

• Plan ahead. Stay present. Take a few minutes, walk around, see what’s available, prioritize, and go. Otherwise, if you just eat everything in sight there will be no room for the other half of the BBQ you completely misssed

• Use a beverage to intentionally slow you down. In between plates, this is especially useful. Take 5 minutes to sip on the beverage before the next plate — another hack.

Not all BBQs are the same but I hope this helps someone win @ tomorrow’s Memorial Day BBQ or any future All-You-Can-Eat event.

-Jack