[Sca-cooks] Looking for further info on the Feast of Unicorn last November.

[Stefan li Rous]

Nichola replied to my inquiries about his feast with:
> Thought I would reply to this here on list...
> Sigh boy was that an exhausting nap... ;)
> Nope actually it seems that I forgot to actually report what I learned
> after my first feast.  Sigh sorry folks it has been a rough year, the
> good news is that things are looking up now.

Thanks for the reply. Do you have more you want to add in another  
message or not?  I'm afraid I couldn't tell for sure from the way you  
finished this message.
> My report from my first official SCA feast.
> Feast of the Unicorn was the Event.
> The site was Camp Fellowship located on Lake Greenwood SC.
> Head Cook was Lord Nichola Buscelli.
> Assistant Cooks were Lady Anastasia Bellasare`, Katrina d'Henge, Lord
> Bruno, Lord William, There were 2 others but I can not remember their
> names... it has been to long sorry.  If someone can fill those in I
> would appreciate it.
>
> (Master John if you can give your Duchess Simone's son's name I would
> appreciate it.  Also there was someone working on pastries whose  
> name I
> cannot remember.. if someone can fill in that blank it would be  
> great.)

I think I'll hold putting this article on line for a bit longer and  
see if you get the answers to you quesitons.

>  Now I gave the menu way back then and I cannot remember all of the
> details... but I will talk about what I learned.... THAT I still
> remember.
>
> 3) Watch your sauces... in a meat heavy dinner I had used all vinegar
> based sauces... since those were what was recommended in the  
> recipes...
> We used a Vinegar Sauce, Poivrade Noir, Beef in a Sauce Poivrade,
> Chicken in a Vinegar Sauce.   Now Me I like the vinegar sauces...  
> but I
> can see how all of those could overwhelm an normal SCAdian feaster.
> Next time I think a sweet sauce or two.

I can think of honey mustard sauces, but what other medieval sweet  
sauces are there? Perhaps some of the pomegranate sauces?

> 5) Pastries even when prepared ahead of time are probably not a good
> thing if you don't have counter space.  Which occurs when you do not
> have a kitchen.

Was this served buffet style or on to serving platters which were  
then taken to the tables? Why do you need much in the way of counters  
and tables for this if the food items are pre-prepared? How did you  
bring them to the site? Why couldn't you just unpack them directly  
from whatever they were shipped in, directly onto the plates or  
serving platters?
> 6) Especially if they are cream filled pastries.

What difference does the cream-filling make? Was it because they more  
fragile than non-filled pastries would have been?

>  12) Folks are getting tired of duck.

You're kidding, right?  I guess you aren't. But I've seldom seen duck  
served here in Ansteorra.


>  13) If you are extremely careful you can serve allergy free  
> shellfish.

Where are the allergies coming from? The shellfish? If so, how do you  
serve them allergy free? Or do you mean the other foods were allergy  
free, because you were careful about contact between the shellfish  
and other foods and between the shellfish utensils and the other  
food? Or do you mean you bought allergy free shellfish? If the  
latter, what kind of allergies do shellfish get? :-)

>  15) Arrange for servers months ahead of time and lock them in a week
> before the event.

If you didn't have a kitchen, what did you lock them in until the  
feast?  I do wonder though if this will impact the number who will  
volunteer to serve your next feast...


> 18) AND THIS IS IMPORTANT...  Don't let the autocrat take breakfast or
> lunch [dollars] out of your budget... (In this case breakfast...)    
> This can kill
> your promise to make shortcuts that will save money... since the money
> that you have saved is already gone before the event.  And was not due
> to you.

What kind of shortcuts did you promise that would save money? I'm  
used to shortcuts which usually trade time for money or ones that  
save money at the cost of more time.

Thanks for the report.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****