[Sca-cooks] Personal Iron Chef Challenge

[Tara]

> I cooked one feast when there was a death in the immediate family... I just said I
> couldn't go to the funeral. I had 250 people coming to dinner.

I'm very sorry to hear that there was a death in the family, and that
you had to miss the funeral.  But, I must say that I do not admire your
dedication to this hobby.  Everybody is responsible for ranking friends,
family, hobbies, jobs, pets, etc. in order of personal and practical
importance.  Some choices might be easy to deride ("I'm bailing on this
feast because I need to get my car fixed, and I don't want to pay $20 to
rent a car for the day from the garage.") If someone bailed at the last
minute to go to a wedding, s/he knew about that wedding well in advance
and shouldn't have planned to do the feast in the first place.  But,
there is no advance planning for a funeral.  Making someone feel guilty
for having to neglect a promise on top of the pain of losing a family
member isn't going to help anything, and saying "Well, *I* did it, why
can't you?" is nasty.  A death in my immediate family would take
precedence, period.  I hope that most people would feel that way about
their own families.  When it really comes down to it, this is just a
friggin' hobby.  Those 250 people aren't going to say, how dare she go
to that funeral instead of feeding me?  If they do, they're
mean-spirited and selfish and can go to hell.  In choosing to do a feast
you commit to a great responsibility to your friends, and I do not look
on that lightly.  But, familial responsibility trumps that.
Fortunately, those family cards don't get played often.

That said, we are therefore responsible for making sure an assistant or
co-chef knows the plan in case such a thing should happen, or at least
we must keep sufficient notes and instructions that somebody can pick
them up, read them and roll with it.  Bailing on a feast for a truely
good reason isn't quite so bad as long as we plan for that possibility.
'T'ain't that difficult to keep someone informed or keep all our notes
in order.

This was an issue in our area recently.  Someone (who ultimately proved
herself vastly capable) asked to do a feast.  Someone else said, you
haven't done this before, we'll put this Person Who Knows Everything in
on top of you and you can help her.  Well, that Person Who Knows
Everything left the other lady completely out of the planning loop, and
then bailed for a funeral at the last minute.  People weren't upset at
her for going to the funeral; They were very upset that she left no
instructions or even a vague clue with her "co"-chef.  That co-chef
pulled through, but it was grossly unfair to her and to everybody else.

> And I did a small supper for 40-50 when I was on crutches from having been in a car accident.
> That I can't recommend, but I'm told they loved it and everything was devoured. The really
> serious pain killers kinda took care of the memory of that one though.

Sounds to me like you're lucky you didn't slice off your thumb or place
your hand or a towel on a lit burner.  Was this a mundane
career-defining moment?  Was it a wedding feast for a family member or
good friend?  Otherwise, although this obviously took great dedication
on your part, I can't honestly say I admire it.

-Magdalena