SC - feast disasters and recovery

[Elaine Koogler]

I think that the worst disaster I've ever encountered was the First Investiture of the
Barony of Black Diamond (Atlantia), longer ago that most of us want to admit.  The
group had hired a threesome of young ladies who had never cooked a feast before.  They
looked through some magazines, found pictures of some dishes they liked and when out
and purchased the necessary ingredients (no pre-cook, definitely NOT period).  Also,
they agreed with the site owners that the kitchen would not be available until 3:00.
The day of the event the three young ladies were nowhere to be found...they had
panicked and refused to cook the feast.

So.  Several of us who were experienced were called in to try to sort things out.  We
were able to use most of the ingredients they had purchased, but had to augment them
with additional purchases (I still have fond memories of my lord trying to find Brie
in Blackburg, VA.)  We were able to come up with a feast, not all from period recipes,
but at least "periodoid"...and one that folks seemed to enjoy!

Whew!!!!!!

Kiri

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Lorix commented:
> > Oh, I just thought of _another_ measure of success for a feast from the feast
> > steward side:  that you have been able to successfully rectify any mistakes that
> > may have occurred.
> >
> > <snip of how a possible feast disaster was worked out of without panic
> > but with resourcefulness.>
> >
> > Now, the above had the potential to be an expensive disaster & I had very
> > limited to time to fix it & so did the best with what I had.  When I got to the
> > site, I had the expected amused enquiries about the 'raw' venison.  There was a
> > variety of other dishes prepared so no-one was _forced_ to eat the smoked
> > venison, but, after I explained what it was a number of the feasters (some
> > extremely tentatively) tried the meat & pronounced it OK to delish.
>
> To me, this ability is one of the things that sets apart a great
> headcook
> from just a good headcook. I've worked with headcooks that panicked at every
> little thing and because of this ran a very chaotic kitchen and everyone
> was worn out by the time things were over.
>
> On the otherhand, there is the example of the feastocrat for the one
> large event I've autocrated. 350 people at the event, 325 eating feast.
> Late in the afternoon, it was discovered that the freezer/refrigerator
> (I can't remember which) was not working. That was needed for the dessert
> that had been planned. The headcook did not panic. He simply sent
> someone out to buy a bunch of peaches and created another dessert
> using the ingredients meant for the original dessert and the other
> stuff he had on hand. That event was just prior to TFIC, so I don't
> remember how period the dishes were.
>
> I do not consider myself good enough or experienced enough to handle
> such emergencies. For myself and for others that might possibly find
> themselves in such situations, I have created a file from the various
> feast disasters and their resolutions that have been reported on this
> list. This file is fst-disasters-msg in the FEASTS section. As a
> minimum I hope this will give folks some encouragement that others
> have faced and overcome things that make their possible problems shrink
> in comparison.
> --
> Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
> Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
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