SC - On Vigil

[Christina Nevin]

Sieggy answered Liadan with:
> > Does your group cover the cost of the non-paying feasters (you know
> Royalty
> > and their entourage)? Or do you figure your budget on paying feasters, and
> > try to feed everyone for that price?
> 
>     Pointy hats eat free, everybody else pays. I have been known to start
> throwing things (being careful to stick to blunt, soft objects, mind
> you) upon discovering that a pointy hat's entourage has suddenly been added
> to my guest total, and no record seems to exist regarding their having paid.
>     I tend to overbuy, so a few extras don't usually make that much of a
> problem. High Table can be a different story, specially if you're doing a
> spiff du jour.

This has been discussed here and elsewhere before. It does seem to vary
from region to region and maybe event to event. Here is a file about this
in the SCA-EVENT-PLANNING section of the Florilegium:
feasts-free-msg   (14K) 11/11/94    Who gets in free to feasts.

>     Kitchen and serving staff have grazing privileges, wandering moochers
> run the risk of becoming an unscheduled course.
>     I've found, BTW, that a blender full of strawberry daiquiris does
> wonders for attracting volunteers. I keep a list o' tasks on 3 x 5 cards,
> and when someone comes through looking to help, I give them a card and turn
> them loose. When they're done, I give them a daiquiri, thank them, and send
> them on their way. Within minutes, someone will ask them "Hey! Where'd you
> get THAT?", and we get a new volunteer tout suite!

An interesting idea. We've talked about various treats for the
kitchen help previously, but the list of explicit tasks on the cards
is new, I believe.
 
> > How do you plan for price fluctuations in ingredient costs?
> 
>     Lock 'em in early! If you have access to a large freezer, buy ahead on
> sales. Retail sales prices usually SMOKE wholesale prices. I remember
> walking into a grocery store and seeing a sign advertising Salmon for
> $1.99/lb. They had 60 lbs of frozen fillets (BIG 'uns!), and I cleaned 'em
> out on the
> spot. They were NOT happy, but you'll have that. 

<shrug> If they had such a concern they should have put, as they
sometimes 
do around here, limits on how much you can buy at one time. However that 
can be worked around with seperate trips or organising with a few friends.

> Don't be afraid to ask for
> rain checks if they don't have enough of what you want, either.

Good point.

>     Be flexible. Remember, nothing is written in stone, and the menu is
> variable up until the minute the servers head out the door. YOU may know
> that something got dropped, but THEY won't. The Salmon got added to the menu
> simply on the basis of being there at that price.

I will agree with this on omitting items. However, we have had numerous
discussions here on this and I think you and I are still on opposite sides
on this, I think that you shouldn't change things this late as you should
have a posted ingredients list for each dish so folks can check for
allergies. In this case, you added the Salmon well ahead of the feast
and I think it was a wonderful addition. How did you cook/serve this?
 
> > Is the feast expected to "make money" for the event?  (i.e. budget set at
> > $5 per head, but charged $7.50 for feast)
> 
>     Depends. I'm not out to gouge people, but I'll be damned if I'm not
> going to generate at least SOMETHING for the Kingdom for all our efforts!
> However, this can be carried to extremes. I've seen groups (notably a
> certain Barony located in the center of our fair Kingdom . . .) that have an
> unfortunate tendency to charge high and serve a Denny's blue plate special.
> I know they've done it just to turn a fast buck, which irks me no end.

Agreed.
 
> > I know we've talked about some of these issues before, but it's been
> > awhile.  I'll be looking at the florigithingy whilst I await your replies.
> >
> > Liadan (Leanna or Liadnan - I'll settle on a name one of these days)

Okay, I know you have now looked in the Florilegium, but here are a few
of the files in the FEASTS section that I think touch on the questions
you (Liadan) asked:
HC-butchers-art   (13K) 10/ 4/97    For Headcooks - How to work with
your local 
                                       butcher.
headcooks-msg    (130K)  8/24/00    Advice for SCA headcooks. Planning feasts.
high-table-msg    (14K)  6/28/00    Setting up and serving the High Table.
practice-fsts-msg  (7K)  2/14/01    Using practice feasts.
   (includes how they are paid for)
Run-a-Feast-art   (14K) 11/ 2/98    "About Running a Feast" by Minna Gantz.

In SCA-EVENT-PLANNING:
Evnt-Fee-Form-art  (8K)  4/20/99    "Event Fee Formula" by Elaina.
events.xls        (15K)  4/20/99    Excel spreadsheet for the above article.
  (if you have a spreadsheet program, this spreadsheet might be able to
be adapted for feast budgeting)

event-pricing-msg (14K)  1/19/96    Event pricing, reservations.
reservations-msg  (25K) 12/15/00    Handling feast and event reservations.
  (A big differance that affects feast budgeting in different areas and
some of the stuff talked about here, is whether your area does paid
feast reservations or not. In Liadan's kingdom of Ansteorra, paid
reservations are pretty much unheard of)

- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****