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Post by Mrs. Goblin on Dec 13, 2007 16:53:43 GMT -5
How do you prepare period food for a crowd without a great multitude of servants? Thus far most of my period recipes have been chosen with an eye towards feeding people in picnic situations so it could all be done ahead of time and served at room temperature (or a reasonable facsimile modulo current knowledge about safe foodkeeping procedures.) Has anyone cooked and/or served a period appropriate meal for a group, and how did it turn out?
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Post by Mme de Beaufort on Dec 13, 2007 17:00:08 GMT -5
We (as in the ORS) held a ball and dinner in November. Our treasurer it turns out is an accomplished cook. We served it buffet style. We did set out each place setting, people used placecards that they filled out when they came in, marked their spot, and then took their plate and went to fill it up from the buffet. That seemed to work nicely. We obtained two rather nice looking silver(ish) chafing dishes from the ebay, plus two other kinds that were kept warm with sternos, and the rest was salads and such. It was a lush presentation, and people ate it up. There was a bit of a line for a while, but everyone seemed to figure it out. The dessert and tea, we put tea-cups and dessert plates on a separate buffet with those items, and then when dancing started, we (the board) made a quick sweep and cleaned up all the plates and such.
The only thing we had to do after that was wash everything (luckily there was one of those commercial sanitizers there), and keep clean goblets coming throughout the night so dancers could get water or punch.
Buffets always work nicely. And thanks to our VP, who is a purchasing maven, we had tons of lovely china (mixed designs, but who cares?) to use for the occasion.
[edit] we TRIED to hire two people for the evening, but they didn't show. The idea was to have them continually sweeping the tables for dishes and such throughotu the night, washing and putting and putting stuff away so by the time midnight rolled 'round, we'd have little to do. But since that wasn't the case, so we did it. But clearing up wasn't the hard part. It was being there until 1 AM. Luckily, a couple of our members stayed and helped, which was invaluable.
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Post by Mrs. Goblin on Dec 13, 2007 21:51:22 GMT -5
Sounds like a grand time!
In my fantasy world, some day I'd like to host a sit down dinner with footmen and someone in the kitchen mounting the courses with appropriate georgian sensibilities. It's horribly impractical, of course.
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Post by Goblin, esq. on Dec 14, 2007 0:12:00 GMT -5
In my fantasy world, some day I'd like to host a sit down dinner with footmen and someone in the kitchen mounting the courses with appropriate georgian sensibilities. It's horribly impractical, of course. I think the trick might be to do this twice, with people being footmen one time, and diners the next.
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Post by Mme de Beaufort on Dec 14, 2007 0:51:13 GMT -5
If your society becomes rich enough... It coudl be done. I'd gone and bought the wig and sewn a frockcoat for the footman, and I made an apron an cap for the maid, but they both went unused. Alas.
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Post by LadyGeremia on Dec 14, 2007 22:07:18 GMT -5
You might want to check with your local churches. Alot of times there are people who love to volunteer for such events. And if you have some budget, you can always hire some of the local high school kids. I'd stick with juniors and seniors. I know down here where I live they are always looking for a way to make some spending cash without having to get a steady job. As a previous caterer myself, I would get paid anywhere from $50 to $100 bucks for parties and that included food prep, room set up, serving, clearing tables and clean up. The price would depend on the size of the party. Usually weddings with over 100 people that would last about 3 hours would be about $100. (We never had one with more than 150 people.) But if you can get maybe 4 people to work for $50 and someone to "oversee" them all, then you are only looking at $200 for the evening of serving. A small price to pay to actually just sit back and enjoy the evening. Alot of older teens would jump at the chance to make 50 bucks in just a couple of hours. Also, I don't know if you have what we have down here, but our high school kids are always looking or volunteer hours for our state's scholarship. They need 75 hours per year to qualify for a full scholarship. The catch is that the volunteer hours must be both educational and a benefit to the community. I believe that a regency period ball would qualify as both. And, every year you have new students needing more hours, so you have and endless supply of volunteers.
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Post by Mrs. Goblin on Dec 15, 2007 0:39:01 GMT -5
You might want to check with your local churches. Alot of times there are people who love to volunteer for such events. And if you have some budget, you can always hire some of the local high school kids. I'd stick with juniors and seniors. I know down here where I live they are always looking for a way to make some spending cash without having to get a steady job. As a previous caterer myself, I would get paid anywhere from $50 to $100 bucks for parties and that included food prep, room set up, serving, clearing tables and clean up. This is a great idea. What I really want is *skilled* labor and kitchen help that understand the difference between modern food prep and common period techniques. We had a catered dinner to celebrate the anniversary of Trafalgar Day two years ago and the dinner, though tasty, was very very unlike a period meal. The real barrier, though, is hall rental costs. Ouch. The cost of living here in the SF Bay is pretty steep, and to cover expenses we'd need to charge insane amounts. And I'm not sure we really have enough interest to do that yet. But someday.
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Post by LadyGeremia on Dec 15, 2007 10:45:13 GMT -5
I understand that. Most of the places around here are over $500, plus deposit and they require the use of a licensed caterer in which you have to pay another $100 usage fee for the kitchen, it just keeps racking up the price. Fortunatly we do have one small garden club that has a cute little place around the corner for alot less. It's actually an old house that they gutted out and made one big room out of. You could also look into the use of the schools in your area. I work at an elementary school and we are always renting out our cafeteria to boy scouts, girl scouts, home owners associations and other various meetings. The upside is that it's centraly located, everyone knows where it is (or at least how to find it) an fairy cheap to rent. (Sometimes free). Because schools are pubic facilities, they have to follow the equal rights access laws, which means if they offer them to one group, they have to offer them to all groups at the same costs. I've never catered a party at a school, but I believe with a little decorating and some imagination it could turn out to be quite nice. And because it's held at a school, maybe that would open doors to invite more people into your society.
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Post by Mrs. Goblin on Dec 15, 2007 14:21:29 GMT -5
Most of our contingent is in it for the dancing so most of our regular spaces are chosen primarily for dance floor space. I really should look a little farther afield for non-dance events.
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Post by The Major on Feb 19, 2008 12:27:07 GMT -5
Too bad we're half a continent apart. My valet also likes serving as a steward, etc. I'm quite sure he would be a wonderful footman. And this is just the type of thing he prefers to do!
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