The Planning and Organizing of a Feast

Planning the Feast

There are several things that need to be determined before you can start to plan the actual food that is to be served for a feast; the following questions should be answered prior to the menu planning. I will be using the feast for a Spring Collegium as an example for planning and organizing a feast.

• Does the Autocrat or Event Steward have a theme for the event in which the feast is to be made?
  
  For some events a feast is the primary focus for the event and the Autocrat may have a specific theme for the feast and the activities surrounding that feast. Other events the feast is just one of several activities for the event. It is important for the Head Cook (or feastocrat) to speak with the Autocrat to determine any special requests they may have for the feast.
  
  
  • Themed Feasts
    
    There are several types of themes that could be used for a feast. For instance, a theme can be based around a specific time period, perhaps even a given year, pulling recipes from various sources of this time period. Another approach is to focus on a specific region for recipes. These could be a broad, such as the Mediterranean area or narrow, such as the Catalonia region of Spain. A feast might reflect the travels of a person from one geographic spot to another, such as a pilgrimage. Or it might focus on a specific item of food, such as pork like is done with the Beaconsgate Boar Hunt. A feast might combine several aspects of themes mentioned above or may take different approaches such as shapes or colors of food.
    
    
  The feast for the Spring Collegium had no specific theme requested by the autocrat, I have a personal interest in trying Spanish cuisine and thus I made it the theme for the feast.
  
  
• How many people are projected to be in attendance for the feast?
  
  This may seem like an obvious question, but one that needs great consideration. Depending on the number of people projected for the event and the equipment and facilities available for cooking the feast may have a great bearing on how the feast is served and the actual menu planning that is done.
  
  On average there is about 50 people who choose to dine at the feast for Collegium.
  
  
• What are the facilities available for cooking the feast?
  
  This also seems like another obvious question; again it is a fundamental consideration in the planning of the menu. If you don't have an oven big enough to roast a whole suckling pig, you might want to consider taking it off your menu plan. But planning needs to take more than just oven space into consideration, it needs to consider stove space, refrigeration space, counter space, and electric outlets.
  
  There were no facilities available for me to cook the feast for Spring Collegium, thus I had to bring the "kitchen" with me. I own two camp stoves, two coolers and four tables. I also have several cooking utensils and pots and pans. Thus these limitations greatly restrict what I am able to cook on site. I can cook some dishes in advance and consider serving them at room temperature or warming them up just prior to serving the feast.
  
  
• Will the food be served buffet style, family style or to each individual?
  
  If you are serving buffet style, you will want to have larger serving containers and need fewer of them than if you are planning to serve family style. If you serve family style, you will need to determine the size of a table by the number of people that can comfortably sit at it. I recommend 8 for a table size, for a whole chicken can comfortably feed 8 people. If each person is to be served, then the servers should be able to comfortably carry the serving containers. A feast might incorporate more than one serving style.
  
  A feast for collegium is typically a very casual affair, to make things simple and to keep clean up minimal; I choose to serve the feast buffet style.
  
  
• Are there any special restrictions for the feast?
  
  There could be any number of restrictions imposed either by a site or by the autocrat for a feast. Such restrictions might include a prohibition of alcohol on site, if this is the case don't plan on bringing any alcohol on site for cooking purposes, or make the items that use the alcohol in advance. The theme of the feast may be based on a cuisine that might have particular dietary restrictions or methods of cooking, such as the kosher cooking of food. An invited royalty might have a particular allergy for food or a dislike for a certain food; it might be required to adjust things to meet these particulars.
  
  There are no special restrictions for food for the feast for Collegium.
  
  
• What is the budget for the feast?
  
  The budget of the feast will be the deciding factor on what is and what is not on the menu. Most budgets can accommodate at least one exotic dish, but you'll want to make sure that you balance the cost of the remainder of the dishes to compensate for it. Your budget will also determine the total number of dishes that can be served for the feast.
  
  My budget for the Spring Collegium feast was $150. This is based on $3 per person with an estimate of 50 people at the feast. This budget does not leave much room for any exotics, and cost cutting devices can be used to offer more food for the money. Typical ways to keep costs low is using foods that are typically in season and thus available for a cheaper price, and to use cheaper cuts of meat. This budget does not allow for much in exotic foods to provide.
  
  

Planning the Menu

Once the above questions are answered, now you can start planning your actual menu.

• Outlining the Menu
  
  Before picking specific recipes for the menu, it is best to outline the menu. Outlining the menu will help to narrow down on the recipes you research. For a single course of dishes, I try to balance the food for some modern concerns. These concerns take into consideration common food allergies and dietary lifestyles. However, a close examination of many period feast menus shows a heavy focus on meats, which are typically the most expensive part of a meal. For a course consisting of 5-8 dishes, I try to have 2 meat dishes, 2 vegetarian dishes and 2 vegan dishes. I distinguish vegetarian from vegan dishes from one another that the vegetarian dishes can include dairy and egg products. If someone has allergies or sensitivities to milk products, they typically have 4 dishes of 6 that they can consume. The use of more vegetarian dishes also helps to keep the cost of the food down and affords for more dishes or larger quantities of dishes to be made available.
  
  For the Collegium feast I decided on doing two meat dishes, and two vegetarian and two vegan dishes plus bread. For $150, this will consumed all of my budget.
  
  
• Researching the Recipes
  
  There are several published books available these days that have a variety of period recipes with a translation into modern English. In addition, many recipes are also available on the Internet. Some cuisines do not have published recipes, and ethnic recipes may have to be reverse engineered to the time period. The amount of effort into researching the recipes is up to the Head Cook.
  
  There are two distinct areas of cuisine in Spain during the middle ages, these areas are Catalonian and Andalusian cuisines. I had originally wanted to do just Catalonian dishes for the feast, but with the facilities I had available to me for cooking, I decided to expand to include Andalusian cuisine to find more suitable dishes that work well with the limitations I have.
  
  
• Plan a Tasting
  
  It is not only important that each of the dishes you make tastes good, but that they also taste and look good together. Take the time to host a small number of people to sample the feast. This allows you a chance to work out the dishes, get a broad spectrum of input on how the food works together, and to also judge the quantities of food. If any problems arise with the recipes, this gives the opportunity to work these problems and if necessary, replace recipes that fail to work out. This also allows for timing issues to be worked out so that all dishes can serve as planned.
  
  
• Finalize your Menu
  
  With recipes in hand, now is the time to make sure you have everything you need to cook for the feast. Convert all the worked out recipes to have the quantities needed for the number of people you are planning to serve. For each recipe note down what you need to cook the dish and what you need to serve the dish. Having this information at hand will help you to plan what your needs are for equipment you need to bring for cooking the dishes and the equipment needed for serving them.
  
  The Spring Collegium Feast Recipes.
  
  
• Make a shopping list
  
  Compiling your ingredients together to find your total quantities before you go shopping will make you shopping much easier. It will allow determining if "bulk" quantities are needed, or if smaller quantities are more appropriate. This will also aid in keeping within the budget.
  
  
• Do any Pre-event cooking or Preparation
  
  There are often many dishes that can be cooked or have much of the preparation done in advance. Taking the time to do these preparations will place less stress on the Head Cook and their staff on the day of the feast.
  
  
• Make a handout
  
  It is important to provide a handout with an ingredient listing of each dish you provide in a feast. It is impossible to plan for each and every allergy or food sensitivity a person might have. However, providing an ingredient listing enables each person to see if any of the dishes that are being served is of a health concern to them. However, a satisfied belly is often forgotten by the next morning, providing a handout of all the hard work that has been put into a feast can help remind people of the dining pleasure long past the time their food has been digested.
  
  The Spring Collegium Menu.