SC - Serving question

Mon May 8 21:01:08 PDT 2000

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At 11:23 PM 5/8/00 -0400,Siegfried Heydrich said something like:
>     I see from some of the menus posted to the list that people serve 3, 4,
>or 5 dishes in a given course. How do you co-ordinate that with your
>servers? Does all of it come out at once, or do they bring them out one at a
>time?

Often dishes will be combined, except for soup (of course). The sliced 
roast will be served surrounded by rice/couscous,whatever.  The digby cakes 
on the side of the lemon cream, etc. We send out one dish, then as soon as 
it is served they come back and pick up the next one for that remove.

>     We have a serious lack of serving vessels here, and so I try to do
>family service whenever possible - bring out a dish in the container in
>which it was cooked, set it down, and let the guests divvy it up. Makes
>portion control a whole lot easier, not to mention life for the servers. I
>tend to use no more than a dozen servers for a feast serving 250. Is that
>normal for everyone else?

We've only done feasts for 250 or so when it was a Kingdom event, the 
average baronial feast being around 85-130 people.  It is served with 
enough to a bowl/platter to serve the entire table (usually being 8-10 
people to a table).

As for servers, when my household is doing the feast/cooking, we ask each 
table to select a volunteer to be their server.  The servers then get a 
very brief discussion on the mechanics of serving and the history of it. 
(Being able to serve was a high honor in period, it was how you showed your 
esteem for your guests, etc. etc.).  But that way you make sure there are 
enough people to get the food to the tables in a reasonable timespan, AND 
they still get to sit with their friends and chitchat while eating.

>     I think we could all use an exchange of ideas on how to get it out of
>the kitchen and on to the table. Not just the mechanics, but some of the
>pomposities and ceremonials as well. I know I could use ideas!
>
>     Sieggy

We could use a few more ideas too!!

Regards,
Maggie MacD.
Calafian cooking guild.
(Caid)
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At 11:23 PM 5/8/00 -0400,Siegfried Heydrich said something like: 
<blockquote type=cite cite>    I see from some of the
menus posted to the list that people serve 3, 4, 
or 5 dishes in a given course. How do you co-ordinate that with 
your 
servers? Does all of it come out at once, or do they bring them out one
at a 
time?</blockquote> 
Often dishes will be combined, except for soup (of course). The sliced
roast will be served surrounded by rice/couscous,whatever.  The
digby cakes on the side of the lemon cream, etc. We send out one dish,
then as soon as it is served they come back and pick up the next one for
that remove. 
 
<blockquote type=cite cite>    We have a serious lack of
serving vessels here, and so I try to do 
family service whenever possible - bring out a dish in the container
in 
which it was cooked, set it down, and let the guests divvy it up.
Makes 
portion control a whole lot easier, not to mention life for the servers.
I 
tend to use no more than a dozen servers for a feast serving 250. Is
that 
normal for everyone else?</blockquote> 
We've only done feasts for 250 or so when it was a Kingdom event, the
average baronial feast being around 85-130 people.  It is served
with enough to a bowl/platter to serve the entire table (usually being
8-10 people to a table). 
 
As for servers, when my household is doing the feast/cooking, we ask each
table to select a volunteer to be their server.  The servers then
get a very brief discussion on the mechanics of serving and the history
of it. (Being able to serve was a high honor in period, it was how you
showed your esteem for your guests, etc. etc.).  But that way you
make sure there are enough people to get the food to the tables in a
reasonable timespan, AND they still get to sit with their friends and
chitchat while eating. 
 
<blockquote type=cite cite>    I think we could all use an
exchange of ideas on how to get it out of 
the kitchen and on to the table. Not just the mechanics, but some of
the 
pomposities and ceremonials as well. I know I could use ideas! 
 
    Sieggy</blockquote> 
We could use a few more ideas too!! 
 
Regards, 
Maggie MacD. 
Calafian cooking guild. 
(Caid)</html>

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