SC - A question on Servers (ALSO: testing meals)

[Margo Hablutzel]

Delurking again:
	
	Is it normal practice in other kingdoms to have Servers serving your
feast?

It seems to depend upon the Kingdom and the situation.  I cannot answer for
Ansteorra, as I have been at only four events here, one of which did not
have supper; one I did not stay for supper; and two had supper.  One was
served by a monitored buffet, the other by children as servers, which was a
REALLY bad idea IMHO.

Buffet is a problem, because lines can get long; things will run out
(luckily the cheese and the mushroom pies had not run out at that one,
because ALL the meat dishes contained pork!); keeping things at temperature
can be hard; service to high table is an issue; if you don't have servers
assisting with portion control things can get messed up until they look
pretty terrible or the early people will snag too much and leave nothing for
later eaters; and how to handle people who come late and have not gotten
firsts when some people are coming through for seconds.  If you serve each
course as a buffet, add to this that the first people through will be ready
for the next course while others are still going through for firsts.

Using servers has its own benefits and problems.  You have to get the
servers, which is always a problem.  If you have a good-sized student body,
they might be willing to serve for a reduced payment or getting to eat for
free.  Children can be used for some things, such as serving beverages,
breads, and other non-messy items (I am thinking of kids about ten and
under, still small and awkward, and not teens).  Using exclusively children
as servers was a BIG problem because some were not strong enough to carry
the trays; the boys tended to fuss with each other on line; some of the
children argued over who would get to serve which tables and one girl quit
when told she could not serve that table every course (all the children in
one family wanted to serve their mother's table); some of the kids refused
to sit and eat when the food was out; and their attention span and memory
for instructions lasted about half the length of the feasthall.  Of course,
some of these could happen with any server, but older servers do tend to
listen more and are stronger.

If you have people who know how to serve - just carrying a tray so it does
not spill is an accomplishment - you're in good shape; if you get people
with more enthusiasm than talent, watch out!  Also, servers need to be told
ahead of time whether they are to leave the trays on the table and allow the
people to serve themselves (especially if you have half as many servers as
tables) or if they can take the time to serve the people.  This may change
depending upon the nature of the item being served (spinach pie versus
kettles of beef soup).  If you are shorthanded, and one server decides that
he will serve his friends individually and with great show while other
tables are not being served, this is a problem.

Another problem, not entirely related to servers, is that the feasters don't
always share equitably.  In one place, we used tablecovers that we were one
service (eight people, four on each side of the table) long.  So the servers
could say "this is for the blue cloth" or "this is for the white cloth."  At
the latest feast, people were allowed to decorate the tables themselves.  So
one group of ten shared a platter and complained that they did not have
enough, while the group of five to their left had extra, and they had been
given platters filled to the same amount.  Or, a group of four were ignored
while their platter and the next one were shared by the twelve people
upboard from them.  The servers were not good about saying "this serves
eight, from here to there," in part because it was so difficult to see
"here" and "there."

One thing to note is that if you have entertainment, allow the servers to go
into the hall, so they do not feel left out.  Even in period, the servants
would creep in at the back to listen.

	Has anyone tried the "a person sitting at table comes and gets it
for the
	table" technique?

I have seen this tried, but you have the problem of how to politely let
people know that the next course is available, and that the person may or
may not have any skill in serving.  Some tables will choose a different
person or pairs of persons per course.  In addition to the oft-mentioned
traffic jam at the serving area, you can get collisions as people try to get
up from the tables and come over all at the same time.

On another topic (trying to save bandwidth a bit), I agree that RECIPES MUST
BE TESTED beforehand.  Even if you know the recipe, you may not understand
how the recipes for a given course work together.  There need to be
contrasts in texture and colour as well as contents.  It's no good to offer
a stew and a cooked dish of greens and a pudding in the same course, you
feel as though you're being given pablum!  You can also test serving
methods, and determine if your platters are big enough, the bowls deep
enough, or whatever.

We would do tests in conjunction with fighter practice, and I've seen this
in two different places.  One has evening practice and the other a Sunday
afternoon, with dinner following.  The people in attendance are served
dinner that consists of one course of the proposed meal, and they might chip
in, or we took turns bringing supper and contributing to the meal each week
(which may or may not be a feast pre-cook).  This is good as a test of
quantity (one recipe may make four servings while another makes eight, so
the number of multiples need to be adjusted) and tastiness and gives a
fairly random assortment of food allergies, sensitivities, and objections.
(One person claims that anything green is inedible, including carrots of
which the only part you see as they grow is green.)

And just before I slip back into lurking, a brief hop into soapbox to argue
that use of the term "remove" for a course appears to be an entirely OOP
affectation and misuse of a Victorian term.  It is a repellant as
"feastocrat."  IMVHO.

	
- ---= Morgan



           |\     THIS is the cutting edge of technology! 
 8+%%%%%%%%I=================================================---
           |/   Morgan Cely Cain *  <mailto:Hablutzel at compuserve.com>
Hablutzel at compuserve.com
                     Barony of the Steppes * Ansteorra
                        (and sometimes in Atlantia)
                          daytime:  <mailto:margolh at nt.com> margolh at nt.com

       OLD CELTIC SAYING (quoted in the Celtic Calendar 1999):
    "There are three things you should never trust: the hoof of a
        horse, the horn of a bull, and the smile of a Saxon."

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