The Impatient Chef Kvetch: Forks Matter

The Fairview Fork 

Preface:  The Impatient Chef loves food carts.  He is a champion of the small time chef with big dreams and small pockets trying to live the dream of entrepreneurship.  He even ran his own small fleet of coffee carts back in the 1990's.  He's been through this, and made some mistakes.  Now, he wishes to help with some advice borne of wisdom that can only come from dashed dreams ending in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  

Premise:  The picture above depicts a substantial fork imbedded in a sidewalk.  Think of it as inspiration for the words that follow:  Cutlery provided by food carts should be up to the task of eating the meal.  

Pontification:  The Impatient Chef had lunch mere feet from the fork pictured above on a warm, early Spring afternoon, and ordered spaghetti and meatballs from a vendor whose food has been quite yummy in the past.  This was no exception.  The problem was that the single piece of sad flatware they provided was Jabba the Hut to the spaghetti’s Princess Leia with a chain necklace.  The fork was insubstantial, and bent easily.  Without a spoon with which to twirl the noodles on, The Impatient Chef had to make due twirling them on the bottom of the dish, and then lifting them out.  This led to noodles letting go under tension, and snapping back into the sauce.  As a result The Impatient Chef wore some of it home on his shirt.  The fork also could not cut the meatballs in half.  The lonely napkin was also not sufficient as a result.  Your 'umble blogger will not partake of this cart unless the meal is to be consumed at home, or he remembers to bring some silverware.

Similarly, a Mexican cart (now defunct) in Gresham, Oregon served stunningly delicious wet burritos.  The Impatient Chef adored them, especially the Carnitas version.  However, he had to remember to bring a pocket knife, or ordering them was out of the question.  The little plastic knife bent rather than cutting through the burrito.  This was especially bad on the bottom, where the task rapidly became hopeless.  The cart lost at least 3 sales to yours truly over the course of a couple of months.  

The takeaway is thus: food carts, remember that your delicious food has to be able to be consumed on site.  The Impatient Chef, and he assumes other would be diners, may avoid your cart if you cheap out on the flatware.  Losing customers is much easier than gaining them.  Losing sales is not worth the savings.  

The Impatient Chef has spoken.