[Sca-cooks] Banquet dels Quatre Barres - service, length, menu

[a5foil]

Hey folks,

I sent an announcement earlier, but it appears to have gone into the ether,
and not actually reached you all. In light of recent discussions regarding
service, feast length, and menu, I thought I'd share some thoughts regarding
the feast I'm planning. It will be a feast of Catalan dishes from the Libre
de Sent Sovi, about 14 dishes served in 6 courses, including the starters
and sweet finish. If you are interested in attending (3/9/02, Richmond, VA),
you can write to me for more info...

Menu: We are estimating 3-4 ounces of meat per course per person. Between
1/4 and 1/2 cup of vegetable or rice per person, depending on the vegetable.
Based on our test meals, we expect each table to go through about 4-5 loaves
of this homemade bread during the banquet. We will start with fresh,
homemade bread, fresh cheese, and salted almonds. This will be followed by
pan-fried wild mushrooms in a fresh onion relish, and then the monkfish (I
hope) with a silky, white garlic sauce, and then almond confits. Next comes
a dish of lightly fried grated carrots with aged cheese, and then
spit-roasted pork with a green sauce of fresh herbs and spices, olive oil,
honey, and vinegar, and then figs preserved in honey. After a break, a dish
of caramelized onions with cheese and almond milk will be served, and then
spit-roasted chicken with a sauce of almond milk, lemons, sugar, ginger, and
saffron, and then fennel confits. Next comes Saracen beef stew with sops,
rice with almond milk, and honey and Duke's Powder for the rice. Last, the
sweetened fresh cheese.

Length: My hope is to encourage folks to enjoy good food, good conversation,
and good company throughout the day. A number of musicians have expressed
interest in the venue, as have a couple of storytellers, and at least one
dance master, but I'm still looking for more performance artists who want a
place to perform. There will be at least one key entertainment and
incidental music during each course, with some dances between the second and
third meat course, and after the banquet.

The banquet will begin around 2pm and will run until about sunset. The
starters will go out around 2pm, followed by the first vegetable and seafood
about 20 minutes later. The second vegetable and roasted meat will go out
about 3pm, followed by a significant break with entertainment and dancing.
The third vegetable and roast poultry will be served around 5pm. The fourth
course will be a rice dish followed by a stewed meat, served with honey and
spices for the rice. The sweet finish will be a light, sweetened, fresh
cheese dish scented with orange blossom water, served around 6pm. After the
sweet finish, the hall will be reconfigured for dancing and a table of
confits will be set for the evening.

Am I allowing too much time for the banquet? I guess that depends. For the
folks who wolf their food and can't hold a conversation - probably. But for
those who can pace themselves and enjoy both their food and conversation
with their dining companions, and entertainment, 4 hrs to serve 6 courses
with a break in the middle should be about right.

Service: This is a banquet event, built around the feast. The feast will be
limited to 96. There will be 14 liveried servers - one per table, plus two
floaters. We found 15 pottery serving platters very similar to the 14th
century carving platters of Catalunya ($2 a piece at the Pfaltzgraf outlet).
I still need bowls, but will make due if I can't find what I want. We found
1.5" red clay flower pot bottoms, glazed only on the inside (unleaded, I
checked) for about 29 cents each, and they will do for salt. A somewhat
larger size turns out to be perfect for sauce for 8 (it's a toss up - sauces
are supposed to be served in hemispherical bowls, but tables of 8 are
crowded - these look like pottery of the period, take up less room, and cost
much less). Platters and bowls will be recycled between courses. Most of the
food will be pre-preped, and will only be finished on-site. Two of the
dishes and one of the sauces must be made on-site, the rest only need warmin
g/finishing. Attendees will be responsible for bringing and serving their
own wine.

Cost: $20/person, of which $5 is the hall fee and $15 for the feast. The
fish and wild mushrooms are expensive. Fortunately, the cost of chicken has
come way down, allowing me to shift cost for the recent spike in beef
prices.

I'll be happy to entertain any comments or questions, and hope to see some
of you sampling the cuisine.

Regards,
Thomas Longshanks
a5foil at ix.netcom.com