Buffet, sometimes called buffet dinner, originated from pirates in Scandinavia in the 8th century. It is an informal western-style banquet, which is widely used all over the world, especially in large-scale business activities. The specific way is that diners can choose their own food and drinks at will without preparing dinner, and then stand or sit down and dine freely with others or alone. Buffet is called buffet mainly because it can arouse the subjective initiative of diners, who can help themselves and arrange and choose dishes within a given range. As for it, it is also called a cold dinner party, mainly because the food it provides is mainly cold food. Of course, it is also allowed to provide some hot dishes in moderation, or provide some semi-finished products for diners to process.

Buffet is a way of eating that originated from western food. The chef will display the cooked hot and cold dishes and snacks on the long table of the restaurant, and guests can eat them at will and help themselves. This way of eating originated from Scandinavian cold food and hunting breakfast in the 8th-11century.

According to legend, this was the earliest way for pirates to eat at that time, and there are still many cafeterias named after "pirates" around the world. Pirates are so rude and bohemian that they hate those dining etiquette and rules when eating. They only ask restaurants to put all kinds of meals and drinks they need in containers and concentrate them on the table, and then they will eat and drink without restraint. Pirates, a special form of dining, was initially regarded as an uncivilized phenomenon, but over time, people feel that this way also has many advantages. For customers, there are no restrictions when they eat. They can eat whatever they want and eat as much as they want. For hotel operators, the cancellation of the customer's front desk service naturally saves a lot of labor and manpower, which can reduce the use of waiters and reduce the cost of employing people for enterprises. Therefore, this self-service dining method quickly became popular in Europe and America, and with the constant pursuit of delicious food, the form of buffet gradually developed from cold food and breakfast before meals to lunch and dinner; From simple meals to various theme buffets, such as Valentine's Day buffet, Christmas buffet, weekend family buffet, celebration buffet, wedding buffet, food festival buffet and so on. From the point of view of supply mode, from the traditional guests to take food, to the on-site cooking in front of the guests, cooking and eating now, and even developed into a "homemade" buffet where customers take food raw materials themselves and cook and eat themselves. It's really varied and colorful.

Although the buffet originated from pirates, it was initiated by Imperial Hotel Tokyo in the thirty-third year of Showa, Japan (1958). It puts all the dishes on a table, and the guests eat according to their own preferences. This style is very popular.

With the spread of western food to China, the buffet style was naturally brought to China. This way of dining first appeared in the hotel opened by foreigners in China in 1930s, which made it really contact with the people of China. In the late 1980s, with China's opening to the outside world, emerging joint-venture tourist hotels pushed the buffet to the popular catering market in China. Buffet has various forms, rich dishes, comprehensive nutrition, low price and simple dining, which is very popular among consumers, especially young people and children. Buffet is booming with its unique charm.