[Sca-cooks] Master A's Feast; my 2 cents

[Richard Kappler]

Thanks very much for the offer, I very sincerely appreciate it, but I
suspect there are a few msiconceptions that led you to make it.  None of
those misconceptions are any fault of yours, rather mine and A's.  I have
been relatively quiet of late for many reasons, surprinsingly none of them
including the fact that I am autocratting a kingdom level 12th Night.  This
has taken not nearly as much time as I expected and was led to expect
because, oddly enough, I am running this event as I run my business and ran
my engine/firerooms in the Navy.  I put reliable, intelligent, capable
people in charge of the various facets of the operation and I stood back to
do problem solving and management when absolutely necessary while they
ran/run the show for me, but enough of Demming.  What Master A failed to
tell you (because its not in his area of responsibility and cuz he wants
y'all to feel sorry for him :-) is exactly how the fee breakdown was done
and what folk receive for their money.

EK 12th Night is an expensive event.  Yah, sure, you betcha.  Well, allow me
to clarify that statement.  The feeling here in the East is that the event
is expensive.  I disagree with that opinion, but I am biased.  If you wish
to attend EK 12th Night, it costs you $11.  Unless you are a student or
under 17, then its cheaper, $9 IIRC.  Children 5 and under are free.  (legal
disclaimer: I am doing this off the top of my head and might have the
reduced fee rates wrong or age restrictions wrong, but the paperwork is not
immediately in front of me and I just plain don't feel like digging it out.
It's not germain to this discussion).  The only thing I would do different
next time is that I would offer a family rate.  For that $11 you get to go
to the event, an expansive dayboard (YES!  You gets to eat for your $11!)
The dayboard is expansive in quantity of food, but deliberately not
expansive in variety or complexity of menu.  The two fine Ladies putting on
the dayboard are eminently capable of doing a knock-down-draggem-out menu,
but I limited them in scope and required of them a dayboard of a few
statistically popular foods that would be inexpensive, tasty, filling and
easy to prepare.  In addition, you get merchants merchants merchants,
entertainment both professional and from within the populace of the East, a
Masked Ball, classes and seminars, competitions and Court.  Other stuph too,
but those are the main draws.

No one is being forced to attend feast.  If you want feast, you pay an extra
$15 and have to pre-reg or you don't eat, no exceptions.  $15 is pretty high
for a feast.  Or rather, a plain old feast.  I would never charge $15 for a
feast.  Ras and Adamantius have trained me well, but I don't think I am
qualified to do such a thing.  On the other hand, I believe my Master (the
aforeslandered Adamantius) IS.  I personally have no qualms about charging
$15 a head for one of his feasts.  Hmmmmm..... another misleading statement
perhaps.  I have no problem giving the man a budget of slightly less than
$15 a head for a feast, because I know he can make a feast of legend with
that much money, and he is doing so.  I say slightly less than $15 per head
because there will be five (5) people comped into the feast, the King,
Queen, Prince, Princess and the Baroness of Bridge, the Barony wherein the
event is being held.  Knowing the standards of those 5 people, I imagine
they will demand to pay anyway, but I would not demand it of them.  You've
seen the menu.  I let it speak for itself.  And how could I have a feast in
RowDollon that didn't include lobstah?  I have defied the populace of the
Kingdom to find a meal of this magnitude and diversity in the mundane world
for $15.  I have defied them to look me in the eye and tell me the quality
wasn't worthy of $15.  I have given the first, to my knowledge, money back
guarantee ever offered at a feast.  I am prepared to stand behind that
guarantee, but am not worried about shelling out my money.  I can't imagine
I will have to.

We are also having, in addition to all the above and some stuff not listed,
a Queen's Luncheon prepared by Baron Master Joram Goldspoons (come out of
hiding and say hello Joram :-).  I am charging $20 per person to have lunch
with the Queen.  No comps except for Her Majesty.  It's limited to 20
people, though I doubt we will get that many people.  All profits will go to
the Royal Travel Fund.  It's a fund raiser, plain and simple.  It is, in my
mind, the SCA equivalent to a $1000 per plate political fundraiser.  It was
also a way for me to have the two finest cooks in the East Kingdom work 12th
Night without having to put one in charge of the other or other such painful
decisions.

Everybody eats, some eat better than others, a very few will have a culinary
day that they will be able to talk about for the rest of their lives.

regards, Puck


Disclaimer: I'm not saying that I like the attitude described below, but
I'm trying to analyze it.

Remember that feasts aren't supposed to generate profit.  People are
used to paying $7-$10 because it's become the standard to try to plan
your ingredients around that price range.  The idea that the cost of
ingredients can be half again to twice what they're used to paying is
boggling to some people, especially to people who simply aren't
interested in the quality of the food in the first place.  They just
want to be slopped.  There are plenty of people for whom going out to a
nice restaurant is going to a diner instead of McDonald's.  Some people
don't want to pay more than absolutely neccisary, especially at an event
that they're "supposed" to go to, when they don't feel they will
appreciate what they get for it anyway.  They're basically thinking "I'd
be happy with hamburgers and french fries.  Why are you 'making' me buy
an 'expensive' meal, just so I can eat with my friends?"

I must admit that I'm not on the EK list.  I was a long time ago, and
decided that it was going to drive me away from the SCA...  But, Puck
and Master A, if you're getting a lot of flak, my offer still stands to
make up a couple vats of soup and pick up a few loaves of breads for the
unwashed masses.  I'm sure I could draft a few people down here to help
out, and we could manage it for anywhere between $1-$3/person, depending
on what you want.  We could do it a tavern outside the feast hall, to
avoid interfering with Master Adamantius' plans.  Whatever will stop
people from whining :)

-Magdalena