SC - Feast budgets

[Michael F. Gunter]

> 
> Wow! You mean that even your most famous cooks have to cook a feast A) not
> knowing how many will eat it, B)Without the group having any money to cover
> the cost of the food at the time of purchase, and C)Not even knowing if
> enough people will come to cover your outlay?

Well, it sounds bad when you say it that way. But basically that's the way
I've always done it.  We generally have a fairly good idea of how many people
tend to come to events and always make dishes which can be stretched. They are
also usually served in a manner such that they aren't individual sized. The
way costs are figured is that we will decide that the feast will be held for,
say, $3 a head and then figure how many people will attend.

> Sounds like a rather unsound
> business practice to me. YOu must have enormous treasuries, to be able to
> cover the cost of an event and feast without going bankrupt. 

A couple of things are taken into account. I am speaking mainly for the Barony
of the Steppes and the Shire of Black Oak Keep here, since those are the only
two groups I've cooked for (oh, yeah and the Barony of Namron but that. was a 
long time ago.) Steppes' main feast is 12th Night and it doesn't make alot of 
money for the Barony even though it is a large event. The Steppes Warlord tourney
is its big money-maker. Black Oak Keep doesn't make much money off of its 
Championship but does bring in most of its funds by hosting a successful tavern.
Black Oak Keep also does not charge a separate feast fee. The site and feast are
both included as the site fee. This is for two reasons: 1) For people who complain
they don't eat feasts for certain reasons or who eat feasts without paying for 
them. We like to say the site costs X and the feast is free. 2) This helps with
the costs. We expected to feed 150 people at BOK Championship, 100 showed and 
many left early so I wound up feeding around 60 or 70. But we still got feast 
paid for 100.

For Steppes 12th Night I'm planning on 350-400 and I have been given a budget of
around $1500. Now I can adjust my menu based on that budget and those numbers.
Texans are notorious "stop by for supper" types and reservations never seem to work
in my expirience.

> 
> A thought just occured to me---we use sites with good indoor facilities, due
> to the weather. Perhaps our budgets are simply higher due to local climate?
> Those in the warmer regions probably do more totally outdoor events, many of
> which sites can be free or very cheap.

Most of our major feasts are indoor events and outdoor feasts are not all that
common. Most decent campsites have some sort of hall. BOK gets it's site for
free so that helps, but the site fee covers renting privies, mowing the site,
feast, decorations, site maintainence, etc...

> 
> Aoife--boggling at the thought of "No Advance Paid Reservations".

Aw c'mon, Aoife, live on the edge a little. You've heard of "extreme sports"?
Try some "extreme cookery". Wotta rush!

Yers,

Gunthar
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