Introduction
Deciding on a Theme
Selecting Recipes
Costing
Costing Worksheet
Scheduling
The Precook Outline
The Day Of Timeline
Nice Touches
Bibliography
Calontir Cookery Guild

Kateryn de Develyn's Homepage

Nice Touches

Garnishes

• Flowers - you can take them from gardens where there has been no pesticides applied and you are sure the flowers are edible, or many grocery stores now carry edible flowers for decorating foods.
• Sugared flowers - requires advance preparation. Take the flowers, apply egg white and sugar.
• Refrigerate until needed (not more than 2 days).
• Sugar flowers - requires advance preparation. Flowers are made from colored and molded sugars. Can be kept several weeks in a cool dry spot free of bugs.
• Marzipan and gingerbread - can be made day of or in advance. Mold and color the marzipan into fanciful shapes. Mold gingerbread into a multitude of shapes. We have done pears, apples, birds, owls, birds in their nests…
• Vegetables - think carrots carved into men and women, radishes carved into roses, turnips carved as faces, animals, etc…

Table decorations

• Strewn herbs - cut herbs from the garden and strew them upon the center of the tables. Placing the platters and such upon the herbs bruises them and causes them to release their scent into the air adding delightful aromas to the meal.
• Traditional - candles, flowers, etc…

Recipe booklets

You might want to consider printing up some recipe booklets, containing the recipes of what you are serving for feast. This will help you in several ways:

• Saves you from having to return phone calls/e-mails/write people as to the recipes. Because if they are good, people will want a copy of the recipe(s). Always include your source(bibliography of the recipe). Include the original recipe if possible or the translation you used. Definitely include the ingredients and amounts you used for the feast.
• Makes a nice souvenir for many feast goers. I tend to set them out on the tables as part of the table decorations. Some set them to the side and people can pick up a copy on the way out of the feast hall. Others sell them.
• Saves time when you go to document for a competition entry, because you already have it typed up and documented.

Presentation/Serving

• Arrangement on platter/in bowls. Are you just glopping stuff on the platter, or are you making a presentation of each platter? Or only the head table?
• Depending on number of tables to serve, do you want someone who is responsible for decorating the platters and dishes?

Present feast

Make sure the servers actually serve the feast when they pick up their platters.

Don't allow the servers to stand around for 10 to 15 minutes allowing your hot or cold food to turn warm while an entertainer is entertaining. The entertainer is doing this during feast - most of them will not be offended if you are serving food during their entertainment. Skip the announcement of the course until the entertainer is done. But serve the feast as it is ready.

Clean-up

Bag up leftovers to take home, to homeless shelters, or for others to take home. Don't clean up yourself. You have just been on your feat cooking all day. Have a different crew come in for cleanup. You may stay and supervise - sitting with your feet up, but you should not have to clean up yourself.