[Sca-cooks] German Feast Success - long

[Decker, Terry D.]

>  We had reserved or sold
> only 85 feast
> reservations as of noon.  We had planned for 100 with 20 additional
> compensated; royalty, servers and musicians.

Bear's first mistake:  I understood this to be 120 with 20 extra, so I wound
up baking for 160, so there would be a little extra.  Ooops!

>
> At this point, there is some question as to how many people
> actually paid for
> and attended feast.

Which is why preparing for 140 is a good idea.  At least you will be able to
feed the people who actually paid.

>
> Bear arrived at site on Friday to find there was no water in
> the kitchen. He
> called the camp ranger, who worked on the plumbing until
> water was restored.

This is why you need someone on site first thing on Friday to check the
facilities.  I knew within ten minutes of arriving there was no water in the
kitchen and notified Rick who had to make a trip to Stillwater to get parts
for the repair.  I lost 3 hours to this problem which pushed baking into the
feast preparation Saturday morning.

> Bear baked semmel and rye bread for the feast, finally making
> it to bed at
> around 3 am.

192 individual loaves of semmel.  44 one pound loaves of light (maslin) rye.
137 Spanish pastries on Saturday, plus 1 batch of cinnamon rolls and a test
batch of 11 pastries.  18 hours of work, 11 on Friday and 7 on Saturday.
Without the Hobart and the convection oven, add another 8 hours.  I ate one
semmel roll and a piece of rye for a taste test.  The rest of the rye went
to the gate watch.

>
> I was up at 6 am (as usual) and quietly hit the kitchen to
> make coffee and plan
> the day's schedule.  Not wanting to disturb Bear and
> Margurite, I didn't set
> off the food processor or anything.  I just did inventory of
> what we had, and
> snitched a roll.  All I could say was "ummmmmm."

I was awake with the first clattering.  I didn't get up until the coffee was
cooking.

> BTW, did you know Bear would bake homemade
> cinnamon rolls for
> breakfast if you ask politely and bat your eyes?

What is really necessary is for me to know I need breakfast.  Scratch
cinnamon rolls are fairly easy and they help keep the scullery satisfied.

> Bear finished the Spanish Pastries for dessert and went to
> take a nap.

Second Bear mistake:  I should have taken over that back table for the
baking.  That would have left the table opposite the sink (which I was
using) for prep and the table opposite the range for stove and oven prep.
The finished bread should have been moved into the pantry which would have
left the steel racks open for holding the trayed Spanish pastries for pre-
and post-oven storage.

The pie shells and the Spanish pastries could have been done on the same
table and the pie shells then moved to the prep table for filling.

> I received a lot of compliments. After the second course was
> served, I did hear
> complaints about there not being enough raviolis.

The raviolis were made on site.  I would recommend next time they be
prepared over the weeks before the event and frozen, so that there are
enough of them.

When cooking them on site, they should probably be partially cooked just
before the feast starts, then held in a cooler in table portions until
needed.  Have several pots of boiling broth or water on the stove.  Basket
the portions, finish the cooking, bowl and serve.

I want to see if Spanish pastries can withstand freezing and reheating.  If
so, preparing them off site will save time.

In this particular case, the pear tarts should probably have been served
first, followed immediately by the ravioli and red cabbage together.  That
way the tables would have been happily munching on the tarts and not noticed
the delays in getting ravioli and red cabbage to the table.

BTW, cold dishes, such as the cucumbers, red cabbage, and apple sauce can be
portioned out to bowls early in the preparation and stowed in the cooler on
baking pans.  That way they can be pulled out prior to a course and simply
be added to the serving tray to cut the set up time.

> Bear - for encouraging me to work from period documents,
> baking bread and
> helping me succeed
> Anyway, it's over, my documentation is almost finished
>
> Liadan

Okay, now it's time for critique.  Yah done good on the food.  Planning for
the service needs more work, but you did the right thing in getting Gwennan
to handle prep and service.  Next time you need to make her life easier.
You also need to think about the kitchen tricks you need to get the dishes
ready together for the service.  I think almost all of us make logistical
errors on feasts and we need to think about how to correct those errors.

The blackboard schedule was a good idea.  Keep it.  In addition, you need a
longer schedule with greater detail so the blackboard can be updated.  Plan
equipment use, including scullery, to get as much slack as you can in the
schedule, so you can handle surprises like the water pressure problem.  Ask
the baker for his schedule. :-)

While serving individual items is very period German, keeping the
complementary dishes together is a good idea.  Let the schedule show what
foods need to go together, that way we will be able to enjoy our apple sauce
with our rouladen.

The hall layout was interesting, but needed aisles wide enough to allow the
servers access.  For the arrangement used, two rows of tables and a five to
six foot aisle followed by two more rows of tables and another aisle, and so
on, would have allowed the servers to reach the full length of every row of
tables, a necessity for fast and efficient service.

Your documentation should have been ready as a hand out for the feast.  It
lets the feasters have the fun of looking at the recipes while eating the
food.  Playing with one's food is fun.

You really needed to have an ingredient list at the gate, so people can do
an allergy/dislike check.

The food was properly cooked and other than the ravioli and the applesauce
arrived in reasonably good order.  The only noticeable problem was the
shortage and coolness of the ravioli.  Despite glitches, the service was
creditable.

In my estimation, you did better on your first try than many people who
regularly do feasts have ever done.  You have a good crew.  I'd be happy to
have them on board when I do another feast.

Right now, you probably don't want to think about food or feasts.  In six
months or so, you will forget about the pain and you will start thinking
about doing it better, so what's it gonna be; 14th Century English, Italian
Ren, Elizabethean?

Bear