Large Event Planning
I. Cost Analysis for Feasts

1. Figure out a menu that is both attractive and within your means. Details on how to do this will be discussed in another article.

2. Quantities to cook for the number of people you expect. To calculate this, figure out, for a feast with the approximate number of dishes that you will be serving, how many people one recipe-quantity of each dish feeds.

   Remember, at a feast consisting of a dozen dishes people will eat less from each dish than they would at a meal where only two or three dishes are served. Ignore what many recipe books say about number of servings in a recipe; the amounts they quote are usually for a meal at which only one main dish, with a vegetable side dish, and perhaps a soup and dessert, are served; NOT for a banquet with 12 or 15 dishes. Their dessert quantities are more accurate than other kinds of recipe however; even at complex feasts we rarely serve 5 or 6 desserts.

   The table following (Table I.) is compiled partly from recipes given in "The Joy of Cooking", partly from Lady Daphne from the House of Cruzan (a feast-mistress who used to reside in Adiantum), and partly from my own experience in putting on feasts over the last four years. It lists serving portions for a number of dishes, with adjustments for menus where various numbers of main dishes are served.

   In addition, especially with dishes that do not fit any of these categories, test the dishes at potlucks held earlier in the year, and find out how many people did your Renaissance salad feed at a potluck to which 20 people brought 12 dishes, for instance. A dish that feeds 10 at a 12-dish potluck will feed 5 at a 6-dish meal, or 20 at a 24-dish meal; so the figures obtained at such a potluck can easily be modified to suit the menu you are planning.

   Table I. Serving quantities.

   Serving quantities - for a main dish or dishes served with aide vegetable(s) and/or bread	If it is the only meat. (or vegetarian equivalent) dish	If served with one other main-course dish	If served with two other main-course dishes *
   Game-birds, chicken, turkey	1 lb. per person	3/4 lb.	1/3 lb.
   Fish	1/2 lb. per person	1/4 lb.	1/6 lb.
   Roast beef, meet loaf	1/4 lb. per person	1/8 lb.	1/10 lb.
   Stews, Sukiyaki, etc.***	1/3 to 1/2 lb. of finished product per person	1/6 to 1/4 lb.	1/9 to 1/6 lb.
   Steaks	3/4 lb. per person	1/4 lb.	1/6 lb.
   Quiches, cheese pies - 9-inch deep-dish pie	1/4 pie	1/6 pie	1/10 pie
   Meat pies - 9-inch deep-dish pie	1/4 pie	1/6 pie	1/10 pie
   Vegetables	3-inch length large carrot (approx. 3 ounces) per person, plus 1/4 large potato; or equivalent Rice - 3/4 to 1 cup cooked rice per person, depending on whether it is served with a main dish plus vegetable dish or with a main dish alone ***
   Dessert pie, 9-inch deep-dish	1/6 pie
   Whipped cream for dessert pies	2 heaped Tablespoons
   Whipped cream syllabub (flavored whipped cream)**	1/5 pint per person (before whipping)
   Bread - as s major component	2 large slices (standard commercial loaf size), or 2 small rolls (2-1/2 inch diameter) or 1 large roll (4 inch diameter) per person
   Bread - as a minor side dish	1 large slice, or 1 small roll per person
   * With more than two other main-course dishes, even less will be used. Note that all the dishes do not reduce the same -amount; if chicken, a braised beef and a fish dish are served together, people tend to take more of the chicken (if it is pan-fried or roasted), and less of the other two meats. ** This item is not medieval (they did not whip cream), however it is included in this table for general usage. ***These figures do not apply to one-dish meals (in fact, none of this table does. For that, use the number of servings quoted by the recipe under consideration. Such figures are not useful here, since feasts never consist of one dish alone.)

   Every dish that will be served at Adiantum's January 1980 An Tir Twelfth Night was tested in this fashion at one of three events held earlier in the year.

   Next, figure out how many multiplications of one recipe-quantity you will need to feed all the feasters you anticipate at your event.

   For instance, if one recipe quantity feeds 11, then 17 recipe quantities will feed 11 x 17 = 187; this will be plenty if you are catering for 175 people, whereas 16 quantities, which will feed 166, may leave you a little short.

   For stews, rice, meatballs, etc., this is easy. However, if you are serving by tables, and are having pies, it looks cheap to have 7/8 of a pie served to each table, so go back to your floor-plan, count the number of tables, figure out what size of pie will best feed the number of people you are seating at each table, and whether you will need more than one pie per table (or bread loaves, whole roast chickens, etc.). Then multiply the number of tables by the number of pies per table and add a couple of tables' worth of spares. Note: it is always wise to cook fore a few more people than you actually seat at table - a safety margin.

   Cautionary note: some recipes do not multiply up for cooking in large quantities without some altering of ingredient proportions. (This will be discussed in a later article.)

3. Prices. Make a list in a small notebook of every ingredient in all of the recipes in your menu, and go to a local large-chain supermarket (NOT the cheapest one!) to get the price per pound, ounce, pint, etc. of every item on the list. Fig. 3 is a sample of prices from my notebook.

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   Fig. 3. Some ingredient prices (page from my notebook).

   Notebook: Safeway Supermarket prices September 1979:
   Vegetables
   	Spinach	33¢/lb.
   	Red cabbage	49¢/cabbage (approx. 2-l/2 cups)
   	Cucumbers	2 for 39¢
   	Carrots	33¢/lb.
   	Onions, yellow	49¢/lb.
   	Onions, green	29¢/bunch
   	Celery	39¢/small heart
   SUMMER PRICES! DOUBLE THEM FOR WINTER!
   Diary
   	Milk	$1.77/gallon
   	Eggs, large	75¢/dozen
   	Cheese, med. sharp cheddar	$2.29/lb.
   	Butter	$1.65/lb.
   	Margarine (Nucoa brand)	79¢/lb.

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   Note: if you are going to need only a small quantity of an item, do NOT write down the bulk rate; if you need another item in bulk, write down the bulk price for that item.

   Do NOT go to the cheapest place in town; use an average priced market. Later when you BUY the stuff at the cheaper place, the dollars you save will provide a safety margin. Our initial price-estimates were done at a medium-priced supermarket; they are both more predictable price-wise than discount warehouses and local food cooperatives, and less likely to bent out of stock when we get around to buying. When you are working with a total food budget of $700 to $1000, a small but unanticipated price-rise in a major food item between planning and buying time can do quite a bit of damage to your carefully-planned budget. You cannot be too careful. Use a set of food prices you know you can still count on after several weeks or several months, when it is finally time to buy the food. In addition, please observe the following two factors:

   1. Seasonal price-changes in fresh produce: Caution! When taking fresh fruit and vegetable prices in summer for a winter event, double every price to get a fairly good average reflection of what winter prices will bent in the winter when you will be buying them. Not all fresh produce exactly doubles in price; but this is a good working average.

   2. Availability of seasonal food-items: Check that those ingredients only available during part of the year will be available at the time of your event. Fresh produce and some seafoods may only be available for a few months out of the year. (Note: salmon CAN be bought ahead and frozen; we have done it.)

4. Cost per head of each recipe . To work out this, you will need a good set of conversion tables; ounces to pounds, liquid ounces to pints, weight of 1 cup of sugar in ounces, etc. etc. "The Joy of Cooking" has several pages of Equivalency Tables for different foods. For wine, vinegar, milk, and other liquids of similar consistency to water, use the standard liquid conversions at the beginning of those tables. For other foods, especially solids, look up each food under its own section in the tables; a cup of butter and a cup of brown sugar do not weigh the same. If a food item is not listed, find one in the tables that is similar in consistency. (For instance,I use the raw apple figure for carrots and potatoes, neither of which are mentioned in my edition.) If an item is not listed, nor anything remotely like it, measure some yourself and find out. For instance, my edition of "The Joy of Cooking" leaves out honey, so I pencilled it in: 1-1/2 cups honey weighs 1 lb. (approximately.)

   An example of how to use the table is: If 1 lb. of butter costs $1.49 and my recipe uses 1-1/2 teaspoons, how much does that cost? There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, 6 tablespoons in a cup; and one cup of butter weighs 1/2 pound. There are thus 2 cups = 16 X 2 tablespoons in a pound of butter = 32 tablespoons. 1 pound = 32 tablespoons costs $1.49, therefore 1 Tablespoon costs $1.49/32. Since 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon, 1-1/2 teaspoons = 1/2 tablespoon. Therefore 1-1/2 teaspoons costs $1.49/32 X 1/2 = $0.023 = 2¢. Be kind to yourself; buy a $10.00 pocket calculator.

   Then for each individual recipe, make up a table, as follows (Fig. 4), working out the cost of each ingredient, adding them to get the cost of the recipe, figuring out how many the recipe will feed, and dividing cost by the number of people to get the cost per head of the recipe:

   Notebook: CIRCLETES (Cookies) "Fabulous Feasts" p.162

   Ingredients	1 recipe (feeds 16)	1 recipe costs ($)	Recipe x 16 feeds 16 x 16 = 256 people
   Butter * Brown sugar Egg, beaten Flour (unbleached) Lemon peel, grated Cardamom, crushed Almonds, ground Currants Butter to grease cookie sheets *	1 cup - 1/2 lb. 2/3 cup 1 egg 2-1/2 cups 1/2 tsp. 3/4 tsp. 1/2 cup 1 cup 1/2 tsp.	.83 .16 .06 .12 .23 .10 .95 1.00 .03 ________ $3.48	8 lb. 4-3/4 lb. 16 eggs 10-1/2 lb. 8 lemons 1/4 cup 2 lb. 10 oz. 5 lb. 14 oz. 1/4 lb.	This section is blank at this point, since no. of people is still uncer- tain; it is filled in later.
   1 recipe makes approx. 48 cookies (balls 1 inch in diameter). At 3 cookies per person, 1 recipe feeds 16 people and therefore 16 recipes feed 256 people. 1 recipe costs $3.48 to make, therefore cost per head is $3.48 divided by 16 (no. of people) = 22¢ per head. If you plan 48 cookies per batch, it is easy to cut the batch in half, then in quarters, eighths, sixteenths, and then cut those in thirds to get 48 cookies. If you plan to make 50, you can halve the recipe, but it is difficult to cut even fifths. (50 = 2 X 5 X 5). Some multiples are easier to work with than others. To make the cutting easy, we placed the cookie mix evenly in a flat tray, chilled it as the recipe requires, then cut it with a knife into 48 equal chunks. This way we get the right number of cookies each time. * We will probably substitute margarine for the butter; we have tested this recipe using both, and cannot tell the difference. (Note, later:- we did use the margarine - Janet of Arden.).

   Fig. 4. Recipe ingredients and costs (Circletes), using September 1979 supermarket prices (page from my notebook)

5. preliminary cost table. Next, draw up a table that lists all the recipes, with amount per head, number of people fed by each recipe quantity, and dollar price per head. At the bottom, include the following:
   1. costs of any serving utensils you know you have to buy (so far Adiantum has always been able to borrow all we need).

   2. miscellaneous kitchen needs - soap, pot-scrubbers, hot-pot holders - all that you cannot borrow.

   Notebook: January 1980 12th Night: - Cost analysis (preliminary) (Safeway Supermarket Sept. 1979 prices)

   Recipe		Amount to serve per head	No. people per recipe amount	Cost of 1 recipe amount	Cost per head
   (1)	Compound sallet	1 scoop 1/3 - 1/2 cup	24	$6.11	$.25
   (2)	A carrot salad	3 inches	7	1.15	.16
   (3)	Pickled cucumbers	3 1/4 inch slices	6	1.08	.18
   (4)	Honey-oatmeal bread	2 small loaves per table (5 people per small loaf) (5-loaf recipe)	25	1.40	.06
   (5)	Manchets	1 small manchet/person	16	.44	.03
   (6)	Galantine pie (in closed crust)	1 9-in. deep-dish pie per table of 9 or 10 people	9 or 10	3.57	.40
   (7)	Meatballs in almond milk on rice	2 meatballs	14	5.72	.41
   (8)	Lamb n' Lentils (Mawmenye)	1 9-inch pie plate full per table of 9 or 10 (3 cups)	18 to 20	6.94	.39
   (9)	Cheese n' Vege Pie	1 9-inch deep-dish pie per table of 9 or 10	9 to 10	1.77	.20
   (10)	Pears in confection	1 pear half	12	3.92	.33
   (11)	Circletes (cookies)	3 each (1 in. diameter)	16	3.48	.22
   (12)	Cheddar cheese (med. sharp)	1/36 lb.	36	2.29	.06
   (13)	Plum conserve (served in stale small French bread loaves)	1 pint per table of 9 or 10 (recipe makes 2 to 2-1/2 quarts)	36 to 40	3.45	.10
   (14)	Margarine	1/2 lb. (2 pats) per table of 9 or 10	18 to 20	.69	.03
   (15)	Salt for tables	1/3 lb. per table of 9 or 10	27 to 30	.39	.01
   (16)	Water served in Los Hermanos vine jugs (have handle and pouring spout)	1 jug per table of 9 or 10 (each jug holds 3-3/4 pints water)	9 to 10	.15 (for jug)	.02
   SUBTOTAL COST PER HEAD OF ABOVE MENU					$2.85 per head
   ADDITIONAL "FOOD" COSTS:
   17. Serving items that we could not borrow: 5 aluminum pie-plates per table for serving, at 87¢ for 5 plates, = 87¢/9 per head					.09
   18. Kitchen miscellaneous items: 10¢ per head for soap, pot scrubbers, hotpot holders, etc. - all that we could not borrow					.10
   19. Cooks' petty cash: 10¢ per head for all the food and kitchen items forgotten about until the last minute					.10
   TOTAL COST OF SERVING ABOVE MENU					$3.14 per head

   Fig. 5. Cost analysis (preliminary) (Page from my notebook)
   3. Cook's petty--cash fund, for last-minute items that were forgotten.

      I usually budget 20¢ per head for items (ii) and (iii) combined, 10¢ per head for each item. This works out to $20 per 100 paying people, $10 for kitchen items, and $10 for the cook on the day. (See section 7.)

      The table on the previous page is our 1980 Twelfth Night preliminary Cost Analysis table, showing our first estimate of total food and kitchen costs per head. Although this figure will be modified, it gives a first approximation which can bent used in your initial calculations. Note: food costs from $2.75 to $3.50 per head are reasonable amounts for feast meals in late 1979 to early 1980 (time of writing this article.)

The head cook needs petty cash for last-minute emergency kitchen needs. Something is always forgotten! One year went forgot pot-mitts (luckily someone provided some old towels, as we provided no petty cash that year), another year it was soap and pot-scrubbers. Salt for the tables is another easy item to forget until 1/2 hour before the feast.

The autocrat also should have some dollars, although in our experience at Adiantum they have not been needed so far.

For Adiantum events, I compute them as follows:

• Kitchen miscellaneous: 10¢ per paid ticket (it comes out to $10 per 100 paid tickets) for everything the kitchen needs but cannot borrow. The total list may include such items as soap, pot-scrubbers, pot-holders, a box of Band-aids and a gauze bandage or two, freezer bags, aluminum foil, wooden spoons, matches (if the kitchen has gas stoves or alcohol burners are being used).

• Cook's petty cash : 10¢ per paid ticket (which is $10 per 100 paid tickets) for last-minute purchase of items which were forgotten earlier. It should be handed to the cook before the event as cash.

• Autocrat's petty cash : I compute 25¢ per paid ticket to cover ticket printing, wax for candles, and other such costs. Any not spent in advance (and there should be some left over! We usually spend less than half of this amount ahead of time) should be handed as cash to the autocrat before the event, for such needs as replacing a burnt-out light-bulb at the last minute, etc.

  Note: If the autocrat and head chef feel wealthy and are willing to use their own personal checking accounts for last-minute items, this money, instead of being drawn as petty cash, can be used to reimburse them after the event. Tell them to keep their receipts.

  The day of a big event is NOT the time to try to justify an expense to the Exchequer, or to try to get a committee together to authorize a purchase. There are too many other things that need the autocrat's and the head cook's precious time.

In addition, at the really big events (200 or more people), no matter how efficient your door-keeper is, and regardless of the fact that the SCA supposedly runs on the honor system, you will have gate-crashers, some of whom will be SCA members in costume. For instance: at the 1977 An Tir Twelfth Night at Adiantum, we sold approximately 205 tickets and gave out 35 free tickets; but 270 people sat down to dinner. Which means that 30 people got free meals they weren't entitled to, and nearly all of them were in costume. We did have a very impressive doorkeeper that year; but some ticket smuggling (in spite of tickets having individual names on them) may have gone on. Sorry folks, but it does happen, even in the SCA. Adiantum has not had problems with this at our smaller paid-ticket events, however. (To be safe, allow for about 3 per 100 paid tickets, with good door security.)

Go to Part 4, or Part 5

© 1980 Janet Naylor

Return to Introduction, Part 2.

Last updated 12/19/97.