[Sca-cooks] Re: Commitments, Contracts, Costs and Committees, was: Re: Feast stewart at the crossroads

[Jim Fox-Davis]

Phlip wrote:

[snip]

>And prices here ARE much higher than I'm used to. Rob and Margali's home (2
>br house, 3 story barn, 2.75 acres) is appraised at over $130,000- in my
>area of Ohio, it would go for maybe $40,000.
>
In the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where Selene and I live, if
you could -find- a 2.75 acre parcel (unlikely), with such a house and
barn, you could expect to pay over $2,000,000!  And no, I'm not kidding.
 The -average- price of a house in Los Angeles County, and that's
approximately 1,500-1,600 square feet on a 1/4 acre -maybe-, is over
$300,000 this month.  Selene and I pay $1600 a month rent on a 2000 sq.
ft. 4 bedroom house with a decent back yard (maybe 25x50).  We have
other friends, nearer the beach, paying $2,200 a month for a -small-
three bedroom house, and they have to move, 'cause she's pregnant with
their third child.  He's looking at jobs in Fort Worth because he could
-afford- a decent house there on his salary.

>Our rent, for the little mall
>kiosk that I'm working out of, is $2700 per month- and people want us to
>sell them watch batteries for $2.00. NOT- we couldn't stay in business. The
>cost of living is just higher here. Site fee and feast fee for the feast I
>cooked in February was roughly $26,
>
Site fee + feast for our 12th Night was $20, so I guess we're doing all
right.

>which was paid by everyone, including
>me, even though, after cooking the stuff, I never wanted to look at it
>again... and, most of that was site fee- I think we made less than $100
>profit, even though I was under budget. If 4 fewer people had attended, we'd
>have lost money.
>
We understand.  For 12th Night here in this past January, we had an
income of $ 6,572.00 and total expenses of
$ 5,626.71, for a total profit of $ 945.29, of which the Barony kept 40%
and the Kingdom got 60%.  I spent $2,437.00 on food for 260 paying
guests + royals + cooks & servers, out of a budgeted $2600.  The hall
-alone- was $1800, and we had gotten a 10% discount over their regular
rate!  The hall for next 12th Night is costing the Barony of the Angels
$2,200, and the dining hall apparently only seats around 150-180.
 Selene had mulled over running two seatings, but I don't know how well
that would work.

>
>I had a similar problem to Selene's too, although I was prepared, when I
>cooked as Avraham's drop-dead deputy, taking over the feast when his new job
>meant he couldn't do the full feast. The previous Head Cook, Pat, had warned
>us that the autocrats couldn't count, and that when they said a feast for
>60, somehow it would expand to 75, so I planned for it- I whooped and
>hollered and complained and told them no more than 70 under ANY
>circumstances- and simply planned for 80 ;-) As usual, they over sold (78, I
>think), and I grumped and bitched and fed everybody, as I had planned.
>
Heh.  I understand.  I had originally said 200 for last 12th night, then
got convinced to have 250 (though my Baronial Exchequer kept being
afraid we wouldn't fill the seats -- and I'm the Baronial Seneschal),
and we wound up seating 264 counting Royals, and could've sold another
60+ tickets based on the waiting list, easily.  Mind you 80% of the
reservations came in the last 10 days.  5% came after deadline, but we
accepted them, anyway.

>Sometimes, you just gotta do what it takes, but that doesn't mean you need
>to take whatever they try to pull on you.
>
Like I said before, the BIG issue was that Selene was originally told a
certain theme, which she'd been researching and working on, and they'd
originally agreed to the $10 per person food cost, because we -have-
developed a reputation for our banquets (one couple liked 12th Night so
much they hired us to do their wedding feast!).  I forget who said, and
I agree, that it's an issue of commitments on -both- sides.  They
approved the site without Selene seeing the kitchen, and changed their
minds on the previously agreed theme and price without even discussing
it with her.

There's going to be a change in Baron and Baroness in Angels in
September, and that couple becomes Reeve and Reevess on Sunday (sort of
Baron/ess in Training), and they thought the autocrat had cleared
everything with Selene, so didn't comment when the changes were announced.

It's weird:  I had such trouble last year with our Baron wanting veto
power on the feast menu (the man wouldn't know a period recipe if it bit
him in the....), and I thought this one was going to be a piece of cake,
because 2001's 12th Night in the same Barony went so easily.  They gave
us a number we could run with and turned us loose!

[sigh]

(Oh well, at least it's not like when I went to the butcher to pick up
the Cornish hens for my first feast as feastmaster, planning to stuff
them, and found 'em frozen and split, because the butcher thought that's
how they were supposed to be served.  We thawed 'em out, pinned 'em
together with toothpicks, and stuffed 'em anyway!)

Jared