[Sca-cooks] Sieggy's feast

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Debra Hense wrote:

> 2 & 1 / 2 hours for a feast?
>
> I haven't attended too many that were that long.  And those
> that I did, most people started getting up and leaving before
> the final course was served.   It seems to me, that about the
> longest that people want to sit at feast is about an hour and
> a half, perhaps stretched to two if the food, company and
> entertainment is especially good.
>
> If it were me, I would shorten up the time between the last course
> and the next appetizer to 15 minutes, certainly no longer than 20
> minutes.
>
> Are the people in your area used to these long feasts? In which
> case I withdraw all my objections.


It probably makes a difference to handle it all in one particular way versus another. When a feast lasts three or four hours because the cooks are having trouble getting the food out, that's a huge problem. What's even worse is when the beginning of a feast is delayed by Court or something, and _then_ the cooks have problems getting the food out. I've seen cases like that run into and above four hours, and as you say, people will begin to simply walk out on you.


On the other hand, if the food is good and comes out like clockwork in
sufficiently small portions that people don't eat themselves sick in the
first 20 minutes, it becomes an almost theatrical experience. On the one
occasion when I did a feast in the way Sieggy describes, my Vicereine
entered the kitchen and told me she had clocked the feast (and at that
point there were perhaps two dishes left to be served) at 3 hours 15.
(My autocrat had been signalling me when people were ready for the next
course. So my schedule was quite vague, and many of the dishes were
being cooked while the previous ones were being eaten.) At that point my
hair was standing more or less permanently on end, and I said something
to the effect that I was moving as fast as I could. She said, "Oh, no,
there's no rush. I don't think anybody's going anywhere. It would be
like missing the end of the show."




Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
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