SC - scented air

[Serian]

Stefan asked:

>This was two different feasts served at the same time, one above the salt
>and one below?

Yes. Originally, the high feast was set to serve 120 not including head
table. The net result was that I ended up serving 160 through a
combination of pleading and planning. Some of those served were
the staff and some were additions to head table that I negotitated
at the last minute with Her Majesty. I cooked for 160, to the best
of my knowledge.

Now at the time of this insanity, I'd also planned to serve a small
side feast, or below-the-salt, of stew and cheeses and breads with
desserts, to other people. I hadn't originally considered doing this.
But in talking with Their Majesties at the time about it, we came to
the conclusion that two of the major goals of the event were to (1)
have fun and (2) keep people at the site having fun.

There was no evening court at the event site. Morning court with
the transition of the King and Queen was at a different event site
(*lovely* church/cathedral with no space for a 700+person event).
So the decision was made to try and keep as many people at the
fighting-feast site as possible for as long as possible and one way
was to serve an inexpensive, veggie friendly opportunity for people to
simply catch a bite to eat so they could stick around for dancing. We
settled on a meat stew, a veggie stew, and breads and cheese, fruits
and, as it turns out, some rather nice donated desserts.

Between you all, me, and that fence post over there, I would have rather
cooked something far more period. But there comes a time when you
just say "Sure, as long as you don't advertise it as period."

>Did you charge different prices?

Yes. High feast was 10$ US prepaid (12$ postpaid). Low feast was
5$ US prepaid. I'm not sure on the post-paid. I think 6-7$.

>How did you handle the logistics of creating and
>serving this? What were the menu differances?

Radically different menus. And in retrospect, I think this was a mistake.
Had I been thinking about this at the time we were planning, the best
choice for that event would have been to do one of three things. Each
choice is a valid one and would probably be the three basic choices
you'd be given in answer to a similar more generic question on the
list, I think. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. These choices don't work for
every group or every situation or every political environment or
anything of the sort:

(1) I could have cooked extra of a few select dishes and simply
given the low feasters a taste of the picture as opposed to the full
in your face gastronimcal onslaught I was accused of inflicting
on the poor folks. This would have been more period.

(2) I could have let someone else cook the low feast and kept to
the high feast on my own.

(3) I could have let someone else cook the low feast and coordinated
everything.

As it was, technically we did #3. I say technically because other than
saying "YOU! CELERY! PLEASE CHOP!" I didn't do the cooking for the low
feast. But when I think of letting someone else cook it, I mean letting
someone else do everything and leaving them on their own to planning
and everything else involved with getting a feast out on the table. For
coordination, I would probably negotiate burner sharing and oven timing
to help them out.

I did peronally cook many of the dishes for the high feast, many ahead
of time. The low feast was cooked the day of the event and I planned
it that way on purpose. In terms of logistics .... In planning out my
kitchen timing and prep work, I treated the low feast as an extra
first course that not everyone would eat, with radically different
proportions. I knew how long the items would take to cook and how
many burners and stoves I had and when feast was supposed to
happen and how likely the Royalty were going to be on time (they
were only 5 minutes late, so I was 10 minutes later). If you choose
#3 like we did, I think this is the best way to think about it. There
were not multiple courses for the low feast. Everything was served
more lunch tavern/dayboard style.

Does this answer your questions? If not, I can answer more.

Iasmin

Iasmin de Cordoba, gwalli at ptc.com