[Sca-cooks] Suggestions Needed

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

1)  Do other inter-kingdom wars have feasts and are they well supported?
<snip>

The two wars I am familiar with down here are Fool's War and Gulf Wars,
neither has a large feast prepared for event attendees.  With large camping
events, there are usually households (like ours) that do big dinners and
invite lots of folks over, and some that do Meal Plans where individuals
sign up in advance for a certain number of meals to be provided over the
course of the event.

2)  If there is a feast, do you require advanced registration/payment or is
it just sign up on-site if you want it?

Oh my, yes, you definitely want to take paid reservations in advance.
Discuss an upper limit with the site and use something below it (say 10%
below maximum capacity) to set as your sold-out number.  Discuss the seating
arrangements before deciding on that number.  Many sites can seat more folks
than an SCA feast set-up will comfortably allow.  (We like to have tables of
8, tablecloths, lots of candles, so a table they might fit 10 or even 12
children at would only serve 8 SCA folks).  Take reservations in advance to
get an idea of how many will be coming for dinner, and then if you are
comfortable with how many have reserved (and don't feel inclined to cancel
the meal altogether) you can put out sign-up sheets at Troll for those that
decide to buy in when they get to site.

3) What dishes have people suggested when dealing with non-SCA cooks?
<snip>

Cormarye is a good choice, not too difficult and it often becomes a mundane
favorite of cooks that are introduced to it.  I would also give them the
option of preparing roasted meats without sauce or other flavorings besides
salt and pepper, then have sauces served on the side.  You may want to have
an experienced SCA cook do the sauces. (Like yourself, I just ran across
your sauce class handout, John.) Talk to them about barley and see if that
can be one of your starches.  Keep your suggestions simple, as with any new
SCA cook, I always advise that diners will be much more impressed with
simple food done well than ambitious food that didn't quite live up to
expectations.  A green salad with a basic oil and vinegar dressing.  Tarts
of apples.

4) What would be a reasonable target price?  <snip>

This is the hard part.  In commercial kitchens, you generally want your food
cost to be ~ 33% of the total price charged.  Labor should be in the 20%
range.  Which means he is going to be looking for a profit (not including
his physical overhead) of at least 40%.  You just can't do that with the
prices we usually charge for SCA feasts, as we don't pay for anything but
food and site overhead.  No labor, no profit (usually), this is one of the
things that makes me so crazy about the complaints we hear about feast
prices in the SCA - try going out to dinner and getting the same number of
dishes (not even counting the type of food) and see what you end up paying!
I would start the conversation with this part of the equation, he might not
get any farther than this.  I would say you are going to have to convince
him to take less of a profit, or possibly discuss with him the idea of using
foods he has on-hand that could be utilized to create portions of the meal,
cutting his out-of-pocket costs down.

5) What is the breaking point; i.e at what price do people decide they don't
want to pay for feast {even though we know it's a better bargain than
they'll get anywhere else}?  <snip>

This will either be a more expensive feast than folks are used to or a
simpler meal than we generally associate with a 'feast'.  I would say your
challenges are going to be bringing in other things to make a big draw, such
as entertainers, door prizes, Dinner Court, an on-going game during dinner,
etc.  It isn't going to be a bargain, don't try to emphasize that.  Focus on
the location (and convenience), the festive atmosphere, the things that will
happen there, etc.

Any advice/suggestions anyone can provide would be appreciated. I have to go
out of town tonight but will be back Thursday night if anyone needs
additional input from my end.  As always, thanks for your assistance.

John le Burguillun

I would go into this with a few things prepared:
A basic cost break-down of the standard SCA feast would be a good thing.
Without specific dishes, an order of service that we generally see, with
discussion that it isn't the same every time, but we do like to see at least
2 courses, usually 3 or more, which can include pre-set appetizer and
dessert courses (or they can be served - dessert can be served at the end of
each course instead of at the end, etc.)
A list of proposed dishes with the recipes.  I wouldn't present original
sources this time around, it might just turn off the commercial cooks.  You
can show up with a recipe for Cormayre done for 8 servings, they can expand
it from there.  Don't throw un-redacted Middle English at them at this
point, however.  They don't care about the authenticity, they are only
concerned with the practical aspects such as which cooking appliances will
be needed, how much time it will take to prepare, and what ingredients will
need to be on-hand.
A list of on-line resources their cooks or kitchen manager can access to do
their own research with.  Don't go with the foreign language stuff, focus on
things like the Miscellany, and others that are easier to read and adapt.
An idea of the beverages that could be served.  If left un-discussed, you
will get tea, coffee, and lemonade.

I really think the cost break-down is going to be your deal-breaker.  If he
is hoping to recoup profits from low concession sales with this meal, it
will hurt your cause even more.  In order to make him happy (or at least
agreeable) you will have to provide the SCA diners with something extra, as
with the entertainment suggestions above.  You might brainstorm with the
autocrat ahead of time to see if you can present the owner with other
suggestions for bolstering his consession sales instead of using this meal
for that purpose.
Good luck, and let us know how your negotiations go!
Christianna