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PPF Short Hits (Much to review)
Apr. 29th, 2008 11:56 amOverall: Excellent. Well dressed guests, servers did fantastic, heck the whole staff! Butler, must have for other feasts!
Worked: serving, seating, having kitchen team/garnish team/servers/officers (panter, butler). Trenchers! Manchet! Carving!
Didn't work so well: Not enough glasses, which made for a huge load on the drink staff. Some confusion on communications. Curious interplay between certain people being "in Persona" becoming very irritating to the staff as they "played" their persona. **
Overall, I'd do it again. The organization worked. Musicians excellent.
Disasters: Well, me. Completely stressed out by stupid things, specifically 1. seating by OP rank and the highschoolness of it all (and the large numbers of conversations that were generated, mainly concerning about 4 people) and 2. transporting the tables. Easy when you have a van. Not so easy when you don't. Wasted hours and hours trying to sort these out, and in the end, improvisation (sit within your mess) with a little assistance (ladies as beautiful as these cannot be separated) and the kind assistance of others (Brian and Rachel SAVE on the table). GREAT crew.
Minor notes: If we had enough glasses, we could have had the standard drink (ale for them, water in some form for us) in pitchers on the table for the servers to refill, as the books mention. A lot less running would have occurred!
Two platters for the chickens would allow the carver to carve one side onto the second platter which the server could then begin serving.
Having a food table to keep the kitchen and servers separate worked well. Add a sideboard where the dishes could be pulled out would have made the system flawless; servers would not have bothered the kitchen staff.
**Ok, I have to relate one of those odd breaches: a certain peer playing an Islamic sent a server back to the kitchen multiple times (basically, for every dish) concerning what was in the dish and could he eat it. He was playing a diplomat in a faraway court where his religious dietary concerns might not be known. But the kitchen staff had taken that into account, and already prepared for it. They were a bit put out that he should think them so careless. Perceptions of hospitality differ, and who is right? Solution would have been to run it all through the marshall, who would make the appropriate responses. The server didn't twig to what was going on, and hadn't been told to stay out of the kitchen.
Vignette two: Grace is cool. But the Almoner doesn't know how to pronounce or actually sing church latin, which leads to a severe disconnect in the latin mass fans. It's probably even more period than doing it right, though! no, it's not, but it does take the "this is religous" sting out of it.
Yes, I'd do it again, but...I'd like to experiment with lots of small changes that would make a big difference. And I have to say, WOW on this one. I haven' t even related some of the fun...the dancing requested, the confusion over fanfares, the forks!
And it was one of those places, oh so rare, where looking in any direction (but up) we looked like a medieval picture. The linens, the trenchers, spoons, knives, serving dishes, glasses--wish I'd gotten a bunch of pictures. The clothes, the people! The set of women in simple italian next to the simple englishwomen! The nobles in their richer clothes! The Barons on Bench (Wilhelm, Cat, Antonio). The Queen sending her wine down to be tasted by her Baron! Sending wine and water thither and yon!
Gah, out of time...more later.
Worked: serving, seating, having kitchen team/garnish team/servers/officers (panter, butler). Trenchers! Manchet! Carving!
Didn't work so well: Not enough glasses, which made for a huge load on the drink staff. Some confusion on communications. Curious interplay between certain people being "in Persona" becoming very irritating to the staff as they "played" their persona. **
Overall, I'd do it again. The organization worked. Musicians excellent.
Disasters: Well, me. Completely stressed out by stupid things, specifically 1. seating by OP rank and the highschoolness of it all (and the large numbers of conversations that were generated, mainly concerning about 4 people) and 2. transporting the tables. Easy when you have a van. Not so easy when you don't. Wasted hours and hours trying to sort these out, and in the end, improvisation (sit within your mess) with a little assistance (ladies as beautiful as these cannot be separated) and the kind assistance of others (Brian and Rachel SAVE on the table). GREAT crew.
Minor notes: If we had enough glasses, we could have had the standard drink (ale for them, water in some form for us) in pitchers on the table for the servers to refill, as the books mention. A lot less running would have occurred!
Two platters for the chickens would allow the carver to carve one side onto the second platter which the server could then begin serving.
Having a food table to keep the kitchen and servers separate worked well. Add a sideboard where the dishes could be pulled out would have made the system flawless; servers would not have bothered the kitchen staff.
**Ok, I have to relate one of those odd breaches: a certain peer playing an Islamic sent a server back to the kitchen multiple times (basically, for every dish) concerning what was in the dish and could he eat it. He was playing a diplomat in a faraway court where his religious dietary concerns might not be known. But the kitchen staff had taken that into account, and already prepared for it. They were a bit put out that he should think them so careless. Perceptions of hospitality differ, and who is right? Solution would have been to run it all through the marshall, who would make the appropriate responses. The server didn't twig to what was going on, and hadn't been told to stay out of the kitchen.
Vignette two: Grace is cool. But the Almoner doesn't know how to pronounce or actually sing church latin, which leads to a severe disconnect in the latin mass fans. It's probably even more period than doing it right, though! no, it's not, but it does take the "this is religous" sting out of it.
Yes, I'd do it again, but...I'd like to experiment with lots of small changes that would make a big difference. And I have to say, WOW on this one. I haven' t even related some of the fun...the dancing requested, the confusion over fanfares, the forks!
And it was one of those places, oh so rare, where looking in any direction (but up) we looked like a medieval picture. The linens, the trenchers, spoons, knives, serving dishes, glasses--wish I'd gotten a bunch of pictures. The clothes, the people! The set of women in simple italian next to the simple englishwomen! The nobles in their richer clothes! The Barons on Bench (Wilhelm, Cat, Antonio). The Queen sending her wine down to be tasted by her Baron! Sending wine and water thither and yon!
Gah, out of time...more later.
