tammylc

Cooking volunteers so far... Amuse - tammylc Soup - Alex Salad - CaliPoutine Meat - NancyH/Bob/Edsel Bread - Tino Dessert - CaliPoutine, KerryBeal, Jean Blanchard (Dessert people - given that there are multiples of you, and we're always stuffed by dessert, you should be thinking in terms of regular size desserts, not each of you making something that will feed everyone. So a single pie or cake or whatever is totally fine) Pretty light meal so far! With 90 people signed up to come on Saturday, I'd think there'd be a few more cooks wanting to wow the crowd. Who else would like to do something? You don't have to have a solid plan yet, just a willingness to put something together.

I think competition isn't such a bad thing in this business. Right now a lot of people see my chocolates and think they're "too pretty to eat." They seem like some exotic strange creation. If they see chocolates like this more often, then I think they're more likely to buy mine. And with so many interesting flavor combinations there's something new to try with every producer. I suppose, there's going to be a saturation point. But I think we're far from it.

What we have so far: Amuse - Tammy Soup - Alex Meat - Nancy/Bob/Edsel

Sounds great, Alex. Soup might be something that it would make sense to plate individually, but for the rest, I am going to strongly push family style platters. We can think about picking up some inexpensive servingware if the church doesn't have enough.

I'll stake out my usual canape/ hors d'ouevre/ amuse sort of thing. And I'll do it for 90. (I think we're all frikkin insane, BTW. But it's a good kind of insane.)

Are you guys up for cooking for 90, then?

Okay, let's approach this logistical question for a different angle. Who wants to be in charge of making something for the Feast on Saturday? If you want to, what are you thinking about, and how many people do you feel comfortable cooking for? In the past we've had people stake out various courses, and then as the menu starts to emerge fully on the day of the event, we figure out what order to serve things in and where some pairing up make sense. So for example, you could opt to prepare a meat dish, and we'd find someone who was doing a side dish that could be served with it. So it's more like staking out a dish, rather than a course where you're mandated to have all the components in hand (although you're certainly welcome to). Also, if you have a signature dish, you can declare it in advance, but in previous years some people have enjoyed figuring it out on the fly based on what looks best at the market. Jean, you asked about bringing things prepared in advance - that's certainly welcome, just speak up answering the questions above about what you're thinking of bringing.

OK, I get it. I like the mini-buffet idea, too, which I guess is pretty close to Number 3. But I can't decide about amounts. For some things, like salads, I think servings for 30-40 would be OK, but if someone has pulled pork or spareribs or some homemade sausages or some homemade potato chips, then servings for 90 would be more appropriate, since I could probably eat enough for 5. Just kidding, I really can't eat that much. I think cooking for 40-ish is more reasonable in terms of time and volume. I'm thinking there will be a lot of leftovers if everyone is cooking for 90. But perhaps if people desire, they can make more of certain dishes they think will be more popular (like said homemade potato chips and sausages...). ← If we were trying to cook the same thing for everyone (ie. portions for 90), then we'd limit the number of head cooks and courses so we didn't have the ton of leftovers problem. i'm a strong proponent of family style over buffet (except for dessert, we've always done a buffet for dessert and it's been fine) because if you aren't doing individually plated family style helps with portioning. It's easy to see how a platter of food divides evenly between 8 or 10 people at a table, compared with trying to figure out what 1/90th of a portion is from a big hotel pan. So people at the back of the buffet line don't miss out.

I like the mini-buffet idea if we opt for a buffet over family style. And I agree with you about the breaks being nice.

In our typical flow, people worked throughout the afternoon prepping their food. When meal time came around, a bunch of people would jump in to help plate a course (either family style or individual), it would go out to the diners, everyone would eat, and another course would be started. Depending on the food item and the cooks, some people chose not to eat the course before theirs if they needed to do a lot of last minute preparation. The pacing is considerably more relaxed than a typical restaurant meal.

No worries, Karen - regardless of which option we take, you'll probably be working with others. Even cooking a dish for 30 or 40 is big enough to be a team job.

Time to talk logistics. But first, a little bit of history, from the only eGulleteer who has attended all the Gatherings! At the first Heartland Gathering, way back in 2003 in Grand Rapids, people made what they wanted, we put a bunch of food out on a long table that we all sat at, and we passed platters and bowls around. There were about 25 of us for dinner. In 2005 and 2006, I hosted the Gathering at my cohousing community in Ann Arbor. We had a kitchen set up and dishes that were able to accommodate a more formal dining style, and we served dinner over several courses, sometimes serving family style and frequently individually plating. People took charge of courses, recruited sous chefs as necessary, and were responsible for making enough for each person at the meal. We had between 30 and 35 diners. In 2007, it was assumed that we'd need to find a place that would let us do the same thing, and NancyH and her crew in Cleveland found a church with a great setup for us, and we did the same combination of plated and family style dining by courses, for about 30 people. Enter Chicago in 2008, and we've got 90 people coming to dinner on Saturday. This calls for a necessary change in the logistics of the event. So before I start finding out who's interested in cooking what, I wanted to get some ideas from people on how we'd like to structure the meal. Some initial ideas: Option 1 - we put everything out on a buffet table at once, and load up our plates wedding style, table by table. Anybody who wants to make anything can, in whatever quantity they desire, so we have small amounts of lots of things, like a potluck. Option 2 - same as option 1, but we have a smaller number of people taking charge of a dish and making enough for 30-40 people. Option 3 - we serve courses, but all family style, nothing individually plated. Each course has several options, and we have a smaller number of people making enough for 30-40 people. Option 4 - we try to do it as close to 2005-2007 as possible, and serve courses family style with each course sized to serve 90 people. Each course has one person "in charge" and sous chefs to help pull it off at quantity. Option 5 - some hybrid of any or all of the above. Those are my thoughts. What do you all think? Note: There will be several of us in attendance who have experience serving meals for 50 or more - me, Calipoutine, and at least one other person whose name I am forgetting. So we would be available to help cooks figure out quantities and process for making larger quantities than they're used to.

Speaking of specific courses and what people want to make, I've volunteered to head up organizing the food for the Saturday banquet. Our large size is going to require a different approach to logistics than we have typically taken. Look for a post from me this weekend to begin a discussion around that!

I use a pizza cutter too.

I'd think a whipped ganache would be fairly stable all on it's own, since the chocolate will add firmness to the frosting. It's not really the same thing as a whipped cream frosting.

Agree that the KeeSeal disposable bags are great. I hate cleaning chocolate molds. I know, i know, you're not supposed to have to, but I'm messy. And frequently have bits of colored cocoa butter that doesn't quite release perfectly. So i end up spraying and polishing at the end of each big production weekend. With a pressure sprayer and lots of hot water, the cleaning part isn't bad. It's the polishing each individual cavity that kills me.

No, just that it's more accurate to compare a meal like this to a ride, to an experience, than to a simple meal. It's about the journey as much as the destination. I have to admit that I've not deconstructed the sentiment much, as it's just made intuitive sense to me... From the Minibar thread

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, meals at Alinea, Moto and the like are less dinner and more an amusement park ride.

I'm in, plus 1 probable. Thanks, Ronnie! Sounds great!

I am signed up with Click-n-Ship, so I guess I've been getting a discount and just not realizing it...

I've never experienced a discount from buying USPS postage online. Can you tell me more?

USPS Express Mail is overnight to most locations and much cheaper than FedEx. Be sure to check your addresses against FedEx ground - depending where you are in the country, there may be a lot of addresses that are within 2-day shipping via Ground.

I think I would address that by keeping the ganache out of customer reach and scooping out a tasting spoonful to hand to the customer instead of letting them help themselves.

I'm with Torsten - too much fat. I have this exact problem when i try to make ganache with my 72% Cluizel and the high butterfat cream I use - it breaks or gets greasy every time. If you're going to try making ganache from that chocolate again, look for a lower butterfat cream - there can be quite a variation between brands. Look to the overall calories per serving as a ballpark - the brands I have access to fall between 45 and 60 calories per serving, and that's a pretty significant difference in fat content. I think you should be able to make brownies or something from the broken ganache, but I have no idea how to adapt it to a recipe.

Yep, I've already read through it. I don't the equipment and am certainly not going to invest in it for my 0.6 lbs! But it's neat to read, that's for sure.