Nothing sheepish at all. The policies used by how carriers take and alot meal orders are well known. Status and full fare passengers generally come first.
A less obvious way to do this is to simply take everyone's order row-by-row and then sort out who gets what in the galley. If indeed everyone's first choice can't be accommodated, only those people have to be told. As carriers move to pre-ordering, the reality is that most passengers will get what they want because it is what they ordered.