SC - HELP!!!!!

[Brenna]

The Cheshire Cat wrote:

> A cheery hello to all the cooks out there,
>
>    A couple of friends of mine announced their engagement a while ago. This
> is no great problem in itself.  However they want a medieval wedding and a
> medieval celebration to go with it and they want me to organise the food
> for them.  Since they said it was to be a smallish wedding, I told them
> that I'd be right glad to do it.  However, they recently produced a guest
> list of 347 people.  Here's where I'm choking a little bit.  Most of the
> events I've cooked for usually only hit the 50 - 75 people mark, 100 people
> tops.  Does any of the more experience cooks have any advice on how to
> organise this 'feeding of the masses' and any recipes for nice food, that
> is reletively simple and can be mass produced?
>
> Thanks to all
> -A rather desperate Sianan
>

I'm cooking a wedding feast for 150 (at least, in Dec) and have cooked like this 4
meals a day for a long time.  The trick is this.  Do as much preprep as you can!
If you can dress the birds the day before, do it.  If you can bake and freeze the
breads a week in advance, go for it (or buy them).  Make your nibbles things like
cheese, bread, baby carrots, hard boiled eggs, even Scotch eggs (as little prep as
possible, got it?).  For my feast, one of my tricks is to slow cook my venison
roasts (by borrowing all the attendant's, the bride's and my own oven overnight
before the wedding, have them put them in coolers and bring to me, and only do an
hour or two in the ovens on site (to reheat) so that the ovens will be open for
the side dishes and birds that come up of the courses before it.    One question,
is that 347 that have RSVPed in the possitive or 347 invited?  If the former,
expect 320.  If the latter, expect 280.  As for the actual feeding, is the hall
big enough and with enough seating, or will you have to hold back 2/3 to restock
the buffet or serve in shifts?  Find out ahead of time as this affects when you
begin cooking what course.  Also, have a really good list of what you need for
each dish, and split it out really quickly as you unpack into different areas of
the kitchen.  It saves alot of time later when you have to say..."Did I need 10 lb
of butter or 15 for this dish?  Where is that list again?" (under the mixing
bowls, of course).

Brenna
(who has half of her meat and butter in the freezer and is still looking for sales
everyday!)


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