[Sca-cooks] How to handle feast staff

[Terry Decker]

<<< I had 2-2.5
hours to serve the feast so getting the courses out precisely in order and
on time, so a good staff that would take direction was critical. They made
me look very good.  And of special note was Cailte's husband, who handled
the carving after the meat slicer died.  Get a good staff and keep it happy. 
 >>>

You WILL get the food out on time! You WILL listen and obey all my commands 
pronto!  Keep in mind what happened to the original meat slicer. You WILL be 
happy!  :-)

Stefan

No, No, No.  First you cajole, sweet talk and teach.

Have you ever rolled out pie crusts?  No.  Here's how you do it.  Now we 
need 22 more.  Now you're experienced in pastry prep.  It's 5:30.  Has the 
Crown arrived?  No.  Okay, let's get the first course ready.  Here's how to 
build a compound salad.  Grab the olive oil and the cider vinegar put two 
cups of each in a jar.   6:00.  Crown's here.  Are they seated?  Yes.  Get 
it out and lay the next course.  The oven's got a thermo-couple problem it's 
gone cold.  Off. On.  Heat it up again.  Are the Banbury cakes baked? 
Here's the sweet potatoes and the spinach.  Fill the blind baked pie shells 
while we set up the next course.  Get it out.  Next course.  Tired, tired 
tired.

The crew is staggering.  Have I thought of everything?  Are the final dishes 
coming out on time?   Amy's about to collapse, but I need her organizing the 
courses to get out.  Ray's come in and taken over the dish washing, so we're 
good there.  The slicer stopped dead and my slicing blade has lost it's 
edge.  Drat, my knives didn't get properly honed this time, got to do that 
before October.  Hallelujah, we have back up with sharp knives!

This dish needs to be served individually.  Do you know the numbers for each 
table so everybody gets served?  One of this pie to a table of eight. 
Here's the dishes for the Baron of Caerthe.  Send the condiments out first. 
What are they?  This is the mustard.  That's the garlic sauce.  Orange 
sauce.  Lemon sauce.  The waiters have been explaining which sauce is which? 
Good.

The last one is out.  The cleared dishes are starting to pile up.  We have 
two people on the sink.  The leftovers are coming back in.  Throw on a tunic 
to go out and check on the wife.  Receive an ovation.

I need to get rid of all these left-overs, who wants them?  MINE!  Okay! 
Amy grabs all the returned garlic sauce, an extra platter from the course of 
pies, and some other things.  Other kitchen staff and waiters collect some 
of the goodies,  The Baroness of Citadel comes in and hauls away a bunch to 
feed the local A&S meeting tomorrow.  Got to get those spilled peas out of 
the burners.  Bit by bit as we clean dishes, a ravening hoard makes the 
leftovers vanish until there are none.

Over.  Done.  The serving dishes and kitchen gear are cleaned, packed and 
loaded.  The kitchen is swabbed down and Ray is running the mop over the 
floor.  I'm ready to leave.

(Paraphrasing the Chad Mitchell Trio)  YOU!  You there!  You should be 
happy.  Why are you not happy?  You have family in Germany, nicht wahr?  BE 
HAPPY!

Whiskey all gone.  We go home now.

Bear