[Sca-cooks] First Feast Execution was Calontir's Jubliee Celebration

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Thu Mar 5 09:43:33 PST 2009


The first thing to understand is a feast is not about recipes and cooking. 
It is an exercise in planning and logistics.  An average meal on time and in 
good order is worth more than the grandest feast executed in a ragged and 
haphazard manner.  At the same time, the food can't be badly prepared.  Bad 
cooking is bad cooking and it will cause any feast to fail.

The first thing to do is to know the hall and the kitchen.  You need to know 
the size of the hall, the type and sizes of tables and charis available. 
You need to know what kind of cooking the kitchen will support and how many 
people you can use without getting in each others way.  From this 
information, plan the layout of the hall including access control and 
service flow.  Layout and acoustics will largely dictate the type of 
entertainment, if any.  Use your knowledge of the kitchen to plan the menu 
and preparation.  Something that should be done, that I often neglect, is to 
write down the information including menu and recipes and make sure copies 
get to the site.

Plan for the kitchen equipment to fail.  The worst feast I have ever 
presented occurred when four ovens failed in the three hours before the 
feast and I didn't have some charcoal and a couple of grills packed away  to 
cook the chickens.  A successful feast often has a belt and suspenders 
approach to execution.

Do not hesitate to ask for help.  Listen to all ideas and be willing to 
incorporate any that will improve what you are offering.  Take command of 
your endeavor.  Make sure the autocrat, seneschal, B&B, etc. know the limits 
and parameters in advance and make them agree and adhere to the plan.  This 
tends to put a kibosh on the whole, "we need to add 50 people to the feast 
three hours before it goes on the table" schtick, especially if the autocrat 
believes you're willing to hand them the spoon and apron anytime the 
autocrat breaks the agreement.

Read the Florilegium.  And of course, join this list and ask for help.

Bear

> All of which begs tht question that needs to be revisited every year-what 
> should the First Time Head Cook do, when awarded the Feast?
> Besides joining this list and asking lots of questions <G>
>
> Helen
> Asking for others who are even newer then I am at this Head business....
>




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