[Sca-cooks] Medieval questionaire

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Oct 27, 2007, at 6:54 PM, Elaine Koogler wrote:

> Yeah, I had a problem with a banquet being compared to a buffet.  I  
> guess I
> was thinking in terms of people having food brought out to them by  
> servers
> and placed on the table vs. standing in line, helping yourself!  Sigh.
>
> Kiri

I'd think that even the standing in line part is not necessarily an  
essential part of the buffet experience, although it's common enough,  
I guess. I spent a couple years running the food aide of a buffet of  
about 35 hot and cold dishes in a high-level corporate dining room,  
entertainment tax laws being what they were at the time, we  
essentially had to provide an incentive, for people who could walk  
over to Chanterelle or Bouley if they felt like it, to eat in-house.  
The traffic was controlled by the maitre d', just like the regular a  
la carte seating, so even though we were quite busy, there were never  
more than four or six people at the buffet at any one time, and you  
never got that "standing in line" feel.

Consequently, I was also a little confused by the banquet/buffet  
question. I assumed it had to do with the concept of various dishes  
being placed on the sideboard for easy service, probably morphing into  
the later 16th and 17th-century banquette table.

Sideboards, BTW, are a magnificent way to keep people from tripping  
over each other when doing a feast. If given the opportunity, every  
feast I do from now on will be set up that way...

Adamantius