[Sca-cooks] professional cooks-- reality check wanted

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>:
>  > In reality a professional caterer would buy presliced or cubed cheese,
>>  pre-prepped (peeled, cubed) fresh fruit, bread, individual butters or
>>  jellies, pasteries and frozen meat pies and a tub of pickles or olives.  If
>>  they didn't have to haul and set up their own tables then set up would take
>>  the amount of cook time for the pasties plus about an hour or less for table
>>  decoration (cloth, napkin, plastic ware, etc.) and opening bags and
>>  containers.  Probably two to three hours tops, inclusive.
>
>*giggle* Ah-HA! Clearly the $1/head figure hasn't sunk in yet for the
>person making the comments. :)

That was my reasoning, too. Obviously you don't just wave your magic 
wand and have this stuff magically appear. Either you buy it prepped, 
or you prep it yourself, but the bottom line is, Time Really Is 
Money, and your plan will be to use more of whichever one of those 
you have more of and can spare, and less of the one you have less of 
and can't spare. I didn't know specifically about the $1 figure, but 
I sort of assumed an SCA group would tend to want to do this the 
cheap way and use plenty of free labor. Which, of course, takes more 
hands and more time.

>On a more cheerful note, I believe that I was mistaken for a caterer by
>a food service type that I ran into at one of my Secret Ninja shopping
>places. :) He asked my advice about whether out of code individually waxed
>aged cheddar would still be ok. :) I ate the aged cheddar and suffered no
>ill effects at least.

Out of code being beyond expiration date? I'm sure it's fine (after 
all, cheesemaking is a preservation method, as is waxing, and most 
cheddar isn't aged nearly long enough anyway), but then again, I'd 
rather eat it than be legally liable for it, if you know what I mean. 
Again, as usual, you have to make your choice from among a couple of 
less-than-perfect options.

On a mostly unrelated note, this caterer you speak of wouldn't be the 
lady who worked on Mistress Gabrielle's mundane wedding last fall, 
would it? Just wondering...

Adamantius