SC - Kitchens

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hi all from Anne-Marie: 
Bear says:
> While there is a lot to be said for the Madrone Cook's Guild's approach,
> there is also a tremendous sense of accomplishment in pulling off a feast
> with a short crew.
> 
> On the organizational side, you are discussing a barony with 20-40
> practicing cooks.  I'm in a barony that has averaged 50 paid members per
> year since it was an incipient shire over 20 years ago.  From the number
of
> cooks, I would estimate Madrone's population at 200 to 300, enough to
make a
> Kingdom.  

Actually, we have something like 800 paid members on our roles. Roughly
100-200 active members. There are folks who come out of the woodwork to
cook that dont do anything else in the SCA. Plus, the guild has been around
for about 20 plus years. (ie lots of toys! we charge a small "dish tax" to
the event and use it, along with our cookbook sales to buy and replace
serving and cooking equipment, tableclothes, etc)

I've also used this model, on a smaller scale, for less complicated feasts.
Again, I had people coming to the cooking area all pouty becuase there
wasn't any cooking to do--my crew of five or so had it handled. I let them
watch and stir the boiling water so they wouldn't feel left out :)

On another side, my small shire in the hinterlands, way back when did
things totally differently. Folks were assigned recipies by the kitchen
head and would bring, say "six Tartes of Flessche" or "three baked hams"
the day of, and the kitchen head would take care of re-heating and last
minute stuff. I've used this "assigned potluck" method here, to some
success. Again, folks are all pouty and boo-boo faced about missing out on
the cooking the day of, but it means we can all spend a bit more time in
the main hall with our buddies.

- --Anne-Marie, who is currently working with the kitchen head on a German
feast with a budget of $7 a head. woo hoo! Roast lambs for everyone!

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