SC - Fw: [Mid] Good Feast!

[Alderton, Philippa]

Here's some good news.

phlip at morganco.net

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider that cain't be throwed.

- ----------
: Date: Wednesday, January 14, 1998 17:28:19 
: From: Ellen Murtland
: To: Middlebridge
: Subject: Re: [Mid] Good Feast!
: 
: >        And then too, our Shire likes to eat.
: >               In Service
: >                     Dijoka
: > From:  RPBOLTE <RPBOLTE at aol.com>
: 
: Boy, do they!
: 	I have heard that our Shire used to have a reputation as really fine
: feast-makers, but I saidly had never eaten one of our feasts.  My
: first-ever feast was our Twelfth Night.  As head server, I thought it
: went reasonably well; hearing all these horror stories, I'm beginning to
: get a big head, because my "reasonably well" sounds phenomenal!
: 	All credit for amazing food goes to Head Cook (out of many cooks, she
: was chief) Baroness Aminah bint Abdullah.  I got to stir things that
: were reheating, and just standing in the corner with my huge wooden
: spoon and listening to her issue instructions to her helpers was a
: learning experience in itself.  It's always a pleasure to be directed by
: someone who really knows what they're doing!
: 	We *probably*, maybe, could have combined Hall Steward and Head Server
: into one position, but I personally am glad that we didn't.  The Hall
: Steward (in this case, Lord Faremanne de Vere) was responsible for
: decorating the hall, setting up tables and such, arranging and
: announcing the entertainment, and announcing each remove.  He also
: announced things on behalf of the other feast staff, like Aminah's
: request to inform servers of any food restrictions so we could serve
: alternate dishes -- and yes, she and her cooks had such things prepared
: ahead of time, as hot and as ready to serve as the main courses.  Like I
: said, the whole thing was impressive.  As Head Server, I think I had the
: easiest job; all I did was coordinate the servers, and assist in staging
: the food right before it was served.  Faremanne and I worked together:
: when we were ready to serve, he would announce the course; once he saw
: everything laid out, he would give feasters a few minutes to dig in
: before starting that course's entertainment; during entertainment, I was
: generally (not always) the only server moving around, and we stayed as
: quiet as possible so as not to distract from entertainment.
: 	The idea that worked really well for us, as suggested by a gentle on
: the Bridge, was to have more than one server for each table, so that
: servers could eat when not working.  We had two per table, (each table,
: roughly sixteen people) and servers took turns working removes; that
: way, if you'd served First Remove, you got a chance to sit and enjoy the
: Second Remove.  There was a little bit of confusion right at the
: beginning, because I had servers sit at the tables they worked, and
: people had to move their feast gear around.  That should have been
: handled better.  At least no one got lost trying to figure out which
: table they were supposed to work!
: 	I remember someone saying that they had a disaster when most of their
: servers backed out at the last minute.  About a half hour before feast
: began, my signup sheet showed that I had almost all the servers that I
: needed, and one announcement brought me the last few to give me the
: ideal number.  The day before that event, I had no servers at all
: (except for people like Terric, who would only *not* help if they were
: dead!)  My servers were both kid and adult -- it helped having little
: people to fit in our small kitchen and help bring food to the staging
: area *smile*, and we had one little guy who was probably six, who wanted
: to help so badly that I teamed him with the Head Table servers.  I heard
: him talking afterward about why he was wearing that blue tabard, and he
: seemed pretty proud of himself. *smile*  And I could have kissed one
: lady, who has worked as a waitress before and naturally did an excellent
: job.  Just knowing that all my servers were competent and eager to help
: reassured me immensely.  I swear, I kept *trying* to make them go sit
: down and eat, and they'd keep popping up and asking if there was
: anything else that needed to be done!
: 	And now people are giving me compliments as if I did anything special
: to make the feast a success.  Are you kidding?  I had no clue what I was
: doing; Aminah and Faremanne kept me on track, the servers did all the
: real work, and once the feast got underway it practically paced itself.
: 	And I'm naming names because these folks deserve to be praised. 
: Hoobah!
: 	Heather of Shadowed Stars, who can't wait for her second feast
: From:  Ellen Murtland <pix at fortwayne.infi.net>
: +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+    to unsubscribe, send a message to
: `~-,  ,-~`~-,  ,-~`~-,  ,-~`~-,  ,-~`    sca-middle-request at dnaco.net with
: .  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |          'unsubscribe' as its body.


============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================