[Sca-cooks] EK 12th Night Menu

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Diana Haven wrote:

> Adamantius,
>
> Why did you have ta post this *after* I moved away
> from NY?  I'm almost considering flying east just for
> 12th night now!

Well, it's like this. I was going to post some kind of flippant response, but I realize that the simple truth is actually probably more entertaining. Here's the situation:


I have a relatively large budget. Not the largest budget I've ever seen,
  but large enough to do pretty much what I wanted. Larger than many,
but not so large that we reach the point where adding money doesn't
necessarily equate with a better feast. I'm a believer in the law of
Diminishing Marginal Returns when it comes to feasts. So, when Puck and
I discussed my budget, we discussed what it would take to produce a more
or less a**-kicking feast, something people would remember, without
having to find silly ways to spend money, lighting candles with
hundred-dollar bills, etc. This is taking into account the fact that
both New York City _and_ Newport, RI, where this is taking place, are
relatively expensive places to live and buy food. In short, I'm getting
$15 a head to spend.

News of this has set off a bit of an outcry around the kingdom (and I
can see people's point when they say they can get a perfectly good
dinner at Applebee's for ten bucks). All I can say, over and over and
over again, until I start to froth at the mouth and fall over backwards,
is that you could not possibly buy this meal at a restaurant for
anywhere _near_ $15.

This got people, including some alleged food-service pros, off on some
tangential reasoning whereby, since your typical restaurant usually has
about a 30% food cost, in order to be worth the exorbitant price, the
feast would have to be acknowledged to be worth $50. But wait, says one
of the foodservice pros, some restaurants get away with a 15% food cost,
so in order to be worth the money, your feast will have to be worth
$100. The implication seems to be that if I merely double, or even
triple, the value of the food ingredients through prep, cooking, and
service, that I will have performed an active disservice to my kingdom
akin to embezzlement.


Anyway, while I think this all is pretty nonsensical, I've been fine-tuning the menu a bit, so I haven't posted it anywhere until yesterday. And if it isn't worth $15, I'd like to be told that.



Adamantius, looking for a nice easy job like being seneschal someplace
(No, Andrea, don't even _think_ it.)
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98