practice-fsts-msg - 2/14/01 Comments on using test or practice feasts to prepare for regular SCA event feasts. Who gets invited. Who pays for the practice feast. NOTE: See also the files: feasts-msg, headcooks-msg, kitchen-clean-msg, p-feasts-msg, Run-a-Feast-art, high-table-msg, Fst-Menus-art, feast-serving-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 13:56:40 -0500 From: Wajdi Subject: Re: SC - budgeting question > Intergroup anthropology question related to feast budgeting: For those of > you who do a 'test run' of your feast menu ahead of time, do you pay for > the supplies for that test run out of your own pocket, does it come out of > the feast budget, do you get other funding from the event budget, or do > you fund it some other way? > -- > Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net (wajdi puts on reeve hat) What it boils down to is who gets served at the testing. If its open to the general populace of the group, then group funds may be used. If its only open to an invited few, then private funds should be used. It could be argued that the general populace would indeed benefit from the testing of recipes, but I don't think the IRS would see it that way. General feast funds should not, in my opinion, be used, as if it is determined, for any reason, that a certain recipe not be used at feast, then that portion of the populace paying for feast would not benefit from that particular recipe, only those persons involved in the testing of it. wajdi Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:31:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: SC - budgeting question - --- Jenne Heise wrote: > Intergroup anthropology question related to feast budgeting: For those of > you who do a 'test run' of your feast menu ahead of time, do you pay for > the supplies for that test run out of your own pocket, does it come out of > the feast budget, do you get other funding from the event budget, or do > you fund it some other way? > -- > Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise For big banquets, I always do multiple test runs. Since I usually have a years notice, I start by assembling my cooks. I usually ask several cooks that I have worked with before, so that I can have a core of experienced cooks who I know will show up and work. I then take volunteers and try to balance the rest of the crew with varying levels of experience. Approx. 9 months before, we will meet and brainstorm and decide our theme, what challenges we wish to meet, etc. I then assign everyone specific areas of research. We then meet again several months later with all our research and one or two dishs to share with the rest. We go over everything we have done and taste everything and make some preliminary decisions. We meet again one month later and work on the first course, cooking it together to see how it goes together both tastewise and kitchenwise. However, we make only enough for the people cooking. The next month we do the second course, etc. When all has been settled and agreed upon, we then do the whole feast at once for ourselves and our spouses/families as our trial run. This usually is about two or three months before the event. After that, I schedule work days to do the actually prep cooking for the banquet to do as much as we can before the banquet day. To answer your questions. No, I don't add these expenses to the budget. I only budget for actual feast expenses. If any cook can't afford to make their dish/dishs for these tests, I usually will reimburse them out of my pocket. These trials usually lead to successful banquets and are lots of fun. They also give a lot of confidence to less experienced cooks, so the day of the banquet is less stressful. After having made a recipe two or three times in different situations, it helps gives you insights into how the recipe might work in quantity, although there are always unforseen variables. Huette Kingdom of Caid Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 12:15:57 PDT From: "Bonne of Traquair" Subject: RE: SC - budgeting question For me, it worked both ways. My first feast I needed to learn a new technique and I wasn't sure of what the instrcutions said, so my family had a lot of similarly prepared chicken in the months before my feast. When I did a test run of the feast, with the autocrat and other event VIPs and their spouses as my guests, I paid for the basic food, but some special ingredients and materials I saved the receipts for. When it turned out that I hadn't used my whole budget, I included those receipts with the others. It was maybe $10 and I wouldn't have cried to miss it had I been over budget. The autocrat and canton officers had told me I could include feast test food if I wanted, but the purchase hadn't increased my grocery bill that week by anything noticeable, I considered it a party and my family did eat the leftovers another night, so I didn't. My second feast involved much less home testing, and a few times I brought tastes to canton meetings, but no formal practice feast such as the first time. Bonne Edited by Mark S. Harris practice-fsts-msg Page 3 of 3