[Sca-cooks] Fair feast budget

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> Planning an economical menu is definitely important, but the real trick is
> correct portioning. I've seen way too many cooks figure that people will eat
> X amount of something when the average portion actually consumed is half of
> that. And then they end up with lots of leftovers. Not everyone eats like a
> starving fighter.

*grimly* I think that the SCA would be better served in general if we 
cooks stopped treating the 'starving fighter' as a special interest 
group. In fact, some fighters and most cooks would be happier if we 
treated fighters like any other human being.  

Yes, I've done dayboards for fighting events, and the expectations are 
different. But if you plan your meal around the stereotype of the 
fighter, it a) builds resentment-- 'feeding the fighters' is often an 
excuse for demanding unreasonable amounts of meat, specifically beef, 
and disdaining green veggies and anything spiced with something other 
than capisciums-- and b) perpetuates a stereotype, and c) wastes money.

Look at your audience as a whole (are they mostly carnivores? do they 
want a heavy meal or a light one?) and plan accordingly. There's no 
point in assuming, for instance, that embroiderers are more likely to 
eat salad and chicken than fighters!

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"The toad beneath the harrow knows/exactly where each tooth-point goes,
The butterfly upon the road/Preaches contentment to that toad." 
			- Rudyard Kipling