Serving Ware

[helblonde]

A fine idea has been tossed around in a couple of conversations and again in the Mists Management Meeting this past Sunday. I'm really hoping that something comes of it (is that the sound of me raising a hand to see that it happens? No, I'm still typing, maybe after). To wit, the Principality could purchase and maintain an inventory of feast serving dishes.

There are a whole bunch of things that would need to be ironed out, but in concept I think this is great. Ultimately, I'll write up my suggestions to our Beloved Seneschal, but for now here are a few things that I'm mulling over.

- What would be needed? Two courses of dishes, at least, but what would that look like? X big platters, XX small platters, X^6 utensils, etc.
- Would we want to do cooking ware, too?
- Do we want to focus on period stuff? Aluminum platters, for instance, are relatively cheap and sturdy, but do decay (as we are seeing in the SS feast stuff). Pottery is heavy, expensive, and more fragile if dropped, but significantly more durable in terms of standing up to long term use and washing. We should be able to at least skip anything plastic. I'd prefer to skip a lot of wooden bowls, since they crack a lot, too.
- Who would be in charge of keeping this inventory? Not the regalia officer (busy enough). Maybe a lesser officer? Maybe a cookery group?
- Where would this stuff be stored? I wouldn't want this in my garage. Could the stuff be stored in the regalia locker? Would the Principality pay for additional storage space?
- What would be a reasonable budget for replacing things, assuming that there will be some loss and breakage every year?
- Could groups within the Principality check out this gear? IMO, Yes, as long as their event doesn't conflict with a Principality feast. How would conflicts at Yule season be resolved? First come, first serving ware?

Comments

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

ok, lets see:

1. we have aquired ALOT of stuff. serving stuff, table cloths, cooking stuff. large, commercial grade stuff. its been aqueired over many years, and some stuff (pottery serving bowls, knives, etc) has gone through several generations.

2. we store it at a members house. they get a nice set of shelving built for them at guild expense in return :). we all pitch in for its transportation and periodic inventory. its stored in plastic bins with clear sides and LABELS. the labels never seem to REALLY tell us whats in the boxes but it helps :)

3. most of our serving stuff is in sets of 25. that covers all the tables plus some extras for breakage. its a collection of pottery bowls that we've had made custom from a local potter (lovely but HEAVY), pretty medievally patterned dinnerware from a local chain store, etc. we still have the metal steak plates...they're ugly as sin but you can heat them in the oven so they keep food hot, they are lightweight and unbreakable.

we use far less BIG serving stuff than you'd think. we tend to break things into tables of 8, so regular sized (or even smallish) dishes work best. too big a dish and the food looks meager and sad...

we used to use alot of wood but less now. too hard to clean. We do have a crate full of finished boards that are VERY useful and a crate of large heavy slabs of wood with indents routed into them wich are VERY good for serving large bits of meaty things (you can arrange the little sauces around, etc, and use them as a cutting board). the old fashioned pressed wood bowls and plates finally went away, I think.

we have a LARGE crate of serving spoons! we get these from restaurant supply places. the "rice spoons" are the most useful...we also have crates of pyrex pie pans (can cook and serve in the same dish!), etc. and a large selection of good commercial grade knives that lives in a large knife block (its handy having a guild member who's a wood worker :))

4. we've paid for all this with cookbook sales, plus by building a "dish tax" into the budget of each banquet we've done. I think its like 20 cents a person or so. at 150 people, that adds up pretty quickly. plus we charge rental fees if people want to borrow stuff. this coveres breakage as well as "pain in the butt" fees because to loan stuff out we have to dig out the one or two things they want and then put them back. Note: tablecloths are the most popular item to rent and we should charge extra for those. they never come back unstained and we have to replace them much more often than large serving dishes!

5. maintaining the pile of stuff is a big job. be sure to brace yourself for the inventorying, maintenance, replacement, etc....periodic purges of outdated or damaged stuff is a good idea too. keeping an up to date spreadsheet with photos is a good way to help a head cook plan without having to dig through everything. be sure to measure the bowls too so that you know if the soup will fit in them :)

hopefully this helps some? if you think of any other questions, dont hesitate to ask me :)

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

That's super helpful. Thank you!