[Sca-cooks] : Adjusting your Feast budget for Comps

[Euriol of Lothian]

The way I have handled this, and it seems to work pretty well, is to plan the food for full tables sets based on the advanced reservations. As an example, I typically plan on tables of 8. If I have 50 advanced reservations for the feast, then I would plan for 56 people (7 tables of 8). I could usually sell the extra 6 seats at the door. If I had 53 or more advanced reservations, then I would plan for 64 (8 tables of 8) again knowing I could usually sell the extra seats. On the flip side I usually have an advertised maximum set of seats I would cook for and a personal or hall maximum of seats. If my advanced reservations are "sold out" I will open up another table of 8, until the personal or hall maximum is met. With a well advertised feasts and reminders that include something like "Feast tickets are going fast, make your reservation soon" my feasts have typically hit my personal or hall maximum.
 
Euriol
 
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It's just politeness really. I had a very similar experience once, cooking
in a barony where booking had become a bit unfashionable. I catered for 80
because that's how many I was told were expected. No one booked and about
half that many people showed up. I threw away so much food (and we lost a
lot of money, though not just on the food - that was the Feast Where
Everything Goes Wrong). Mind you 40 people managed to scoff enough lamb and
gnocchi for 80. 

Funnily enough the next feast in that barony was advertised with a message
that anyone who hadn't booked and paid beforehand wasn't getting in the
door.

Angharad

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