[Sca-cooks] All day feasting

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/24/2007 7:21:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
hlecalais at sbcglobal.net writes:

<<A group in our area has a very "relaxed" event that allows for  an "all day 
feast" situation.  I was wondering if any of you have  experienced something 
such as this, what your feelings were about it, etc.   The landed nobles have 
indicated that they would want me to start with a  "brunch" type course and 
end with a late evening "snack".  Their  Excellencies want those feasting, to be 
notified (by herald) of each course and  then be excused after said course, 
to dance, participate in bardic, nap  etc.  I am VERY excited to do this but I 
always want expert input,  LOL!  Any and all comments would be appreciated!>>
 
I did this once for a 12th Night my shire ran, and was also in attendance  at 
another 12th Night where this was done.  Mine went well, the other had  some 
major issues, and I learned a lot from comparing the two.
In the feast I did, we were basically all in one room, and I served a new  
course of 2-3 dishes every 2 hours or so; the kitchen was adequate and the  
equipment in good shape and I had enough help.  I think having everyone  nearby 
helped because everyone saw when each course came out; also because there  
weren't any major scheduled activities such as courts or performances, so people  
were free to stop what they were doing to eat.
At the 12th Night I attended where this was done, it was a much larger site  
with several rooms, so people in one room were not always aware that more food 
 had been served, and consequently didn't get all the courses.  Some of it  
was also served during other activities such as courts, so people didn't feel  
free to leave to eat even if they knew the food had been served.  There  were 
also, as I understand, significant issues with ovens that didn't work which  
led to difficulties getting out the quantities of foods needed.
 
The things I learned were:
1. Keep everyone close by or, as you are planning, have the courses  heralded 
so that people know more food has been put out.
2.Work with the person scheduling activities to make sure that you are not  
trying to serve a course when some other high priority activity or such is 
going  on.
3. Try to make sure the kitchen equipment works beforehand, and check it  all 
when you arrive in the morning, so that you can rearrange courses if need  
be, or make other arrangements, early in the day.
 
If you are serving lots of courses, keep the serving portions  small.  
Consider having servers to dole out the correct amount and  keep people from gorging 
early in the day and being too full to eat later  courses, or taking more 
than their share so that others don't get any.
 
Brangwayna Morgan
 



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