[Sca-cooks] Feast Ambience - incense

[Barbara Benson]

<quote Giles>
> I'm planning to have a "lei girl" to greet guests with a waft of incense
when they arrive, in the traditional manner.

Greetings,

Your feast sounds like it will be lovely, and I commend you for taking the
time to make all of the extra effort - truly. And I hate to get stuck on one
item, but I have a thought that you might want to noodle about.

If I were to walk into a feast and a lovely and well meaning lady were to
waft incense into my face I would have to leave the hall and spend the rest
of the evening with my head soaking in a sink. We try to be sensitive to
food allergies, please remember that there are other allergies also.

Just so I am not simply being a party pooper, I do have a suggestion.
Possibly you could have two enterances - one with incense and one without.
Even with this, depending on the size of the hall and the amount of incense,
there is a possibility that I would have to leave the hall anyway. I am not
in anyway saying that you should not do the incense because there might be
one person with my problem, please just think about how you might warn
people that there will be intense and unfamiliar smells. You also might want
to consider the type of incense you use. Patchouli is particuarly oily and
agressive where other scents might be more mild.

Again, I am sorry to bring this up. I am one of the first people to pop up
with the "It is the responsibility of the person with the allergy to call
the chef" comment when people bring up allergies, but when you do something
different like this people cannot anticipate & behave accordingly.

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva
Who avoids using the front entrance to major department stores for abject
fear of the PERFUME LADIES.