[Sca-cooks] feast serving

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:


> Yes, I tend to agree. At least if you only consider your shire for
> servers. In this case I was speaking of the EK 12th Night, which was
> put on by a barony and I believe had some outside help.


You _know_ there was outside help; you were part of it! However, in re
the barony itself, it takes 25 active members to become a Barony. I
don't know how many active members this group has, or how many people,
in total, worked the event, but I don't think there were too many
sitting around doing nothing. As a result, outside groups, if not
geographical entities, _were_ asked to provide servers, which they
agreed to do. A class was held on proper service, not only on doing the
job properly, but in doing it so it's fun.


>>Till we take
>>care of the kitchen help, tollner, marshalling, clean-up, and everything
>>else, everybody in the shire is already working or has already been working
>>all day long and is sitting down for the first time...nobody left to serve!

> Yes, this often happens. So convince a nearby group to provide the servers.
> Or the squires. Or the Knights. Or a household. And make sure they get
> credit for it. This will help you get such help in the future. Arranging
> servers ahead of time also lets you do better organization and perhaps
> some onsite training beforehand.


This is exactly what was done; every incentive short of cash on the
barrel was offered (I'm not sure that cash _wasn't_ offered.) We ended
up with about eight servers, after several wide appeals were broadcast
well in advance of the event, culminating in orders from the Crown that
each Peer present should ask any retainers, squires, apprentices, etc.,
to volunteer.


>>And then there's the problem of how to handle feeding the
>>servers - do they have to rush through their meal to serve the next course,
>>or do you have to have something ready for them beforehand so they've already
>>eaten, or what?


Either would work; our servers were fed sort of on the fly, but then so
were the cooks. I don't think anybody really had a problem with the
arrangement.


> I'm not sure there is any one solution for all feasts or situations.


Your experience seems to suggest that there isn't.


Adamantius
--
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