[Sca-cooks] Cooking & Serving...

[Terry Decker]

> Our available kitchens generally have between 2 industrial burners 
> available (really four, but only 2 accessible with big pots) and 4 
> residential burners (2 stoves of 4 burners each, with only 2 per stove 
> accessible with modest stock pots) and 2 industrial to 4 residential 
> ovens. This works fine for our size of feasts.

The kitchen I normally wind up in has a six burner commercial stove with 
commercial oven, a commercial stove with grill top  and commercial oven, a 
commercial convection oven, small Hobart, commercial slicer, about 20 
different pots from 5 to 20 gallons, three or four 14 inch cast iron 
skillets, etc., etc. etc.  The kitchen will handle more than the hall can 
seat.

>
> So i'm wondering, how the heck do you cook for 400!?!? There wouldn't even 
> be enough room in most kitchens for 3 courses of 3 dishes each for 400, 
> let alone trying to cook that much food in one.

A lot of parallel preparation and scheduling of resources.  Fortunately, 
most feasts that I prepare run in the 200-250 range.

>
> And - plating? You mean, you actually serve each course onto each diner's 
> plate in the kitchen? Doesn't this take an awful lot of time?

In the case of Gunthar's feast, Sokol Hall has steam tables setting before 
the bar.  It is also a very cold hall, which means that any delay means the 
food may arrive cold.  Plating directly to the plates from the steam tables 
is as efficient as setting out a messe and it means the food arrives at the 
table ready to eat rather than needing replating.

The hall I normally use, it is easier to serve by messes.

>
> We generally have 8 people sitting per table - there is one server for one 
> or two tables, who just bring out serving dishes with enough of each food 
> for all the diners. The food gets on the tables quickly, then people help 
> themselves.
>
> Anahita

Consider how many serving pieces you need when cooking for 400.  Consider 
the effort needed in cleaning those pieces.  Consider that you have to have 
enough waiters to handle all of the tables.  The larger the feast, the more 
difficult it is to bring all of this together.  It is why I tend to consider 
feasts exercises in logistics rather than exercises in culinary artistry.

Bear