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The Office Potluck Is Dead, Long Live The Office Potluck!

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May 07, 2015
The Office Potluck Is Dead, Long Live The Office Potluck!

Our discussion of office potluck etiquette in the third installment of our recent special investigation of office eating, prompted a strong response from one Sporkful listener, Andy in California.

He wrote in to tell us that Kristen Muller's bitter complaints about flawed potlucks "spurred" him and his colleagues to organize a potluck of epic proportions at their San Francisco office.

"The Spring Potluck of Unusual Size (SPOUS) was an attempt to host the biggest potluck ever seen in the history of our 10,000+ person company," Andy wrote. "We had invited 350 of our closest colleagues to join us in what we hoped would be a pot luck lunch that would not only shatter the record books but also provide a fortuitous feast for everyone who participated."

SPOUS_potluck2

Andy and his colleagues in deliciousness rounded up an incredible mix of foods for their potluck (shown above) -- everything from bhelpuri (a salty Indian snack) and Chinese dumplings to Spanish omelets and even Russian root beer.

"Kristen's rants against bad food that ran out too soon and a forced sense of servitude that pervaded her office events cut deep, but only spurred us on to make our pot luck even better," Andy wrote. "We hit the office with special flyers and a crew of pot luck 'whips' that went and pressed the flesh to make sure people would bring a dish."

SPOUS_potluck1

Andy and his potluck partners even adopted -- and improved -- the tagline from The Sporkful's potluck episode:

"I used your quote that '4/7 of Potluck is luck' on the back of our flyers," he wrote. "Someone bought store bought brownies with a sign that read 'Remember, 3/7 of potluck is Pot.'"

SPOUS_potluck-sign2

The results speak for themselves, according to Andy:

"It was the perfect potluck. 150 people experienced the randomly distributed, stochastic goodness. Kristen Muller is a hater, pure and simple. The great office potluck does exist. We just witnessed it."

Photos by Deep Chatterjee

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