SC - When planning a feast ....

[Edgar, Terry]

Here are my thoughts on this .  I haven't a lot of experience, but do have
some.
For planning:
Try out recipes.  Make the dish for the members of your group.  Get their
opinions .  Taste the food yourself.  Keep in mind that what you are serving
needs to be flavorful.  (all learned cooks cover your eyes now) If the
recipe doesn't call for salt and pepper and the dish is bland and
flavorless, add some.  I once was served a dish at a feast that I recognized
immediately from a period cookbook I have.  It was cooked correctly and was
no doubt totally period.  It was flavorless only because no spices were
added.  I frankly couldn't eat it.  This is not intended as an insult as I
would not say what feast it was or what dish it was, but If I were serving
the same dish, it would be at least salted before I served it.  (I wouldn't
serve it anyway if I hadn't tried it out first)  Many could argue this as
changing some sort of recipe, but I would rather my guests be tantalized
with tasty delicious food if that means adding spices to it.

Take into account your budget. How much money do you have to spend?  a
suggestion would be to make up some rough draft menu's and look at the cost
of the items on it.  How much are you going to charge for the feast?  Do you
think the end product will live up to the price payed?

Do try to make some of the items up in advance.  Do try to get as much help
for the preperation of the feast as you need.  

Don't think you can do it all by yourself.

  When I did a feast last spring, I pulled from my own experience attending
other feasts. What did I like?  What didn't I like?  I tried to incorporate
the things I liked and avoid or change the things I didn't like.  For
example:  One of my feast "pet peeves"  is when there isn't enough to drink
on the tables.  I hate trying to do toasts with an empty glass.  At the
feast I did, I had some servers dedicated to keeping pitchers filled so this
didn't happen.  Another "peeve" I have is when food is served to a long
table but placed in the center only.  The people on the ends never seem to
get enough to eat.  What I did was limit the number of people sitting at
each table to 10, and placed the food on each side five servings each.
Double check to make sure everyone gets each course served.  I was at a
feast once where a whole table was missed for a whole course.  Appoint a
"hall steward" to organize the servers.  Be sure to have a couple dedicated
to serving the "high table".  
Place parts or all of the first course on the tables before the start of the
feast.  While people are eating the first course, stage the second.  Plate
up the food and place out on a cart , shelf, or table ready to be served.
As soon as it is plated , begin serving the second course, immediately stage
the next course and have ready to serve.  If you need to take time between
courses to wash bowls or plates, arrange some entertainment to keep people
occupied and plan the course before the short break as a little longer
course  so people will be eating it longer, giving you time to wash bowls or
plates.
It takes several people to do this quickly and smoothly.  

After the feast is over, ask some of your guests what they thought of it.
Make notes of both the good and not so good things.  Meet with all the
cooks, servers etc., the next day to discuss what went well, and what didn't
go so well.  Make note of both the good things and the not so good things.
Keep these notes and pull them out before you begin planning your next
feast.

I hope this helps some.

rivka
- -----Original Message-----
From: LadyPDC at aol.com [mailto:LadyPDC at aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2000 2:25 PM
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: SC - When planning a feast ....


I will be directing my first feast in the near future.  It is in the
planning 
stages now.

>From all of your experiences, what would be some definite do's and don'ts 
which you would follow and suggest to others for the planning stages, the 
creation stages, the presentation stages, and the post-mortem (as it were)?

Constance de la Rose


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