My partner The Cinetrix is an alumna of Wellesley College. Like many northern schools, their rowing team comes to Clemson over Spring Break to train. We met the team last year, and this year we had them over for dinner. All 44 of them. I like cooking for a crowd, but this was a challenge. What follows are some thoughts and reminders I am putting here, mostly so I can find them next year.
I learned a lot about myself. Getting a little better at asking for help helped me to understand how I need to get a lot better at asking for help. I had trusty sidekick, LG, who was able to show up about t-minus 1 hour from when the rowers arrived. It would have been great to have more help sooner. In general, when I am cooking/entertaining, I need to be much more proactive about tasks I can delegate, and asking for that help. If you have ever been in my house for a meal that I have cooked, you have probably asked "can I do anything," and I have told you no, even as I struggle to dot the Ts and cross the Is in a timely fashion.
When you delegate, things go differently than when you do them yourself. If you ask someone else to chop scallions into 1/2" sections, they might be 3/8" or 5/8" - your meal will still be fine. I got a timely text from a friend about not sweating the small stuff, which empowered me to run the 2lb of radishes through the slicer on the food processor, instead of doing them by hand. Did the Waban Navy arrive, see the irregularly cut radishes, curse my name, turn on their 44 heels and go to Taco Bell instead? They did not.
More generally, if you are an amateur cook who likes to entertain, it is worth putting yourself in the position of your guests. You are using your time, your talent, and your treasure to make something nice for them. They get to buy a bottle of wine or something instead of plan, cook, and clean up a whole meal. If it is not perfect, that's ok. You are not a 3 Michelin star chef; you are a person having people over.
Some random thoughts on feeding 44 hungry student-athletes- ymmv based on sport/gender composition, season, etc.
The veggie items got hit hard and were gone soon. I made a tofu chorizo, and vegan black beans. EVERYBODY hammered the roasted sweet potatoes. I have never cooked for a crowd and had to worry about bringing home leftover sweet potatoes. When I was at Costco, I grabbed a big thing of cherry tomatoes, which just vanished.
I had seltzer available, but some folks just want water. Should get a big thing of spring water for next year. (Not fair to ask Blue to drink the water they were rowing in all day.)
There were leftovers of both animal proteins and the non vegan pinto beans. People went light on the salsas I made, and used less Valentina, etc, than I would have guessed. I bought 8 approx 2lb packs of fresh tortillas, and used 5 1/2. At $1.49/lb and the potential of homemade tortilla chips, I am not mad about paying for that insurance. The tortilla place is about 35 minutes from my house, and I should have asked someone to pick them up, bring them ca. 30 min in advance, and include them in the meal. B/c of work schedules, I had to fetch them earlier than I would have liked, so they were not as warm as could be, and I lost an hour+ I could have been using to get ready.
I was emboldened to embark on this taco night b/c serving tacos at the elementary school international festival went well. As a process question, it's interesting to consider where control over the experience passes from the cook to the eater. In a full-service restaurant, the plate arrives in front of the diner, and the diner can determine only what order they want to eat the things on the plate. A buffet would be at the other end of the spectrum. Somewhere in the middle would be what we might call a "bar" - a baked potato bar, a Bloody Mary bar - you get the basic ingredient, and you can fix it up how you like. When I did the elementary school tacos, it was a bar. We handed the person a taco w the one protein on offer, and they added the toppings/condiments they wanted. There were a few combos that mad me say "you are wild for that," but pretty much every taco looked like I would expect, and how I would fix it for myself. The rowers really chose their own adventures, from what I could see. (W/ the caveat that I was not monitoring, or commenting on what people did or did not eat, b/c I am not the Food Police.) More generally, people will do what they want, and if they don't plate the meal like you drew it up, that's fine. If you want everyone to have exactly the plate you want them to have, open a spot like Hawthorne.
For the carnitas, I used the same approach I used for the bo ssam tacos, which was to roast whole butts, let them cool, save the juices, skim the fat, shred the butts, and reheat w/ the juices and some salt and pepper. With more time and focus, I would have applied more of the fat to the top of the pan of shredded pork, and allowed to crisp in an oven.
Anyway, if you ever get a chance to have Wellesley Crew over for dinner, you totally should. 10/10, no notes. Also, one of the rowers was clearly Ed Reed in disguise, b/c they left the damn place cleaner than they found it.
*Wellesley College Crew's Home Waters are Lake Waban.
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