[Sca-cooks] Dayboard as warm-up for feast cooking

[RUTH EARLAND]

Sometimes it's a couple days between email readings, but I just had to 
respond to this one.

The suggestion was made that cooking dayboard would be good preparation for 
cooking a feast.

I respectfully disagree, on the grounds that the two are rather different.

True, both require a lot of planning and organizational ability. Both 
require research. But they really are different in a few significant areas.

Why dayboard is easier:
-The dishes are usually less complicated.
-Less emphasis on presentation.
-Lower expectations about documentation.
-No one is going to complain about convenience foods (e.g. summer sausage)
-Once dayboard is cleared, your day is free.

Why dayboard is more difficult:
-Smaller budget (always harder with less money)
-Serving more people
-Time constraints (you have to have it out about lunchtime)
-Harder to get an authentic feel
-Staffing issues
-Sharing resources with feast prep can be quite challenging
-Everyone likes portable foods that don't dirty the feast gear
-If you think it's challenging planning a feast menu around various dietary 
needs, think about how tough it must be for dayboard ("Hey, Cook, we've got 
15 people on Atkins who want to know if there is any more meat.")
-People get bored with the usual bread, spread, pickles, eggs, and apples

Your mileage may vary, but given a choice, I find feast easier.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of people who excell at planning and executing 
dayboard. I hold them in awe.

Berelinde