[Sca-cooks] Arghhh feast service

[Laura C. Minnick]

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>
> Jadwiga, Autocrat in a coffin of pastry, despaired:
> >the person arranging feast service for our event in a week and a half has
> >now announced that the 11 people he has lined up can only reliably serve
> >high table (8 people at high table) and I'd need an additional 13 people
> >(one per table) as part of the feast service staff -- offboard and being
> >fed beforehand at the event's expense -- simply to provide simple service
> >to the other 13 tables.
> >
> >Am I crazy, or is he?

Hmm. Depends.

I suspect that he has been looking at some of the 15th c. serving
documents, and basing his ideas off of them. The problem sith this is,
he is assuming that these 11 people are serving the high table and only
the high table. My reading is that there is 1 or 2 assigned to *only*
the high table- the rest of teh staff does their thing at the high
table, and then goes and serves the other tables. Otherwise, the guy
with the basin serves the high table and then stands around. And stands
around. And stands around...

Tell him no. He gets 2 people dedicated to the high table- the others
can do stuff at the high table, and then go serve the populace. Which
means you need 4 more.

Then give him a Valium and tell him to work on efficiently using the
people he's got. You're not the Duc de Berri.

(I know this can be done- I've done it.)

'Lainie
Journeyman Curmudgeon