[Sca-cooks] Feast Procedural Question

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

At 03:55 PM 7/16/02 -0400, you wrote:
> >Hi, gang, I have an odd question for you who've also done a lot of
> >feasts (or even one) in the SCA.  I've been doing them for 26 years, and
> >for the first time, I've been asked to prepare three menus at different
> >price points (costs of $8, $10, and $12 a person for food and prep
> >costs), for the "Committee" to then tell me how much I have to spend.
> > Every other time I've done a feast, they've told me what my budget was,
> >and I went from there.
> >
> >In addition, my Baron wants veto power over the menu.  The last several
> >times we've done feasts, we've hardly even told them in advance what
> >they're getting, and they've always been happy.  We always have
> > alternate dishes prepared for those with allergies and those who's
> >dietary restrictions are unusual (Vegetarians, low sodium, etc.  Has
> >anyone else been seeing this sort of response?

Good answers so far, allow me to throw in my two cents...

First, on Baronial menu veto, I'd just say:  NO.  It's one thing to want to
be involved in the process, and that's a welcome thing.  It's another thing
to want to suggest dishes or type of foods.  But it's entirely another
thing to want total power over the decisions.  What it comes down to is the
fact that your freedom to handle your kitchen is taken away, in a
sense.  Perhaps that's just the headstrong professional cook in me, I just
wouldn't accept it.  Either they trust you to do the feast within the given
guidelines, or they don't.  If they don't, well, they can find another
feastocrat...  IM(NS)HO...

On the three different menus...  The only thing I can think of is a
practice I've done in preparing fundraising dinners.  Looking at various
scenarios where your break-even margin varies.  Like how many tickets at
$50 do we need to sell to break even, how many at $75, etc.  But, in terms
of providing menus at different cost, it doesn't seem to work all that
well.  It would appear to be working "ass backward"...  Perhaps they want
to see what kind of menu would cost how much, and decide on menu/vs cost
attraction factor.  Who knows?

As you surely know, you need to know how many people you are preparing a
menu for, and what kind of budget you're working with.

As someone else suggested, I would figure on the total budget based on that
$8, $10, and $12, multiplied by the total number of estimated feasters, and
prepare three variations of the same menu based on that.

I certainly would NOT want to have three differently priced menu to be
served on the day of!  That would be a headache you don't want to have to
deal with.  Keeping track of who paid for what and so on and so forth just
makes for mayhem.

Muiredach