synergy at a eggfest

AlexKeenan

I have cooked at different eggfests for about five years now.
I also cook at private events for a longer period.
The private events involve fewer smokers and a number of deep fryers.
The goal is to have food ready to eat every 15 minutes for eight hours.
So we plan menus and determine when each needs to be served.
We then take cooking time and prep times and create a schedule of prepping and cooking time as well as signing smokers and fryers.
We can build synergy this way. For example we can prep fresh tortillas and have them waiting for tacos, chips, etc. 
Multi-purposing is a common theme in these events. 

Do people form group cooks to build synergy at eggfests? Or are eggfests geared more towards providing a means for cooks to present their unique abilities and talents as single or small teams?
Some concepts like the taco bar, a grilled cheese bar, etc. require a certain amount of teamwork and synergy to really do right if you are going from making bread and/or tortillas, making sauces and condiments, smoking meats, prepping toppings, etc. But such bar concepts allow for very fast customization and variety.   

I would be interested in your feed back because the very large difference in eggfests and private events I attend.

ThrillSeeker

Anxious to hear replies on this one. Those are some great concepts that were described. 

SaltySam

This makes me curious.  I'm cooking in my first Eggfest this coming weekend. Apparently there are a lot of things I hadn't yet considered.   When you say that the goal is to have food ready to eat every 15 minutes for eight hours...I take it you mean the tasters should have something to eat every 15 minutes, and not that the cooks should churn out something every 15 minutes.   That seems borderline impossible.  

I've been told that we will each get two demo Eggs to cook on.  I'm planning two separate dishes that should be fairly easy to cook at the same time.  I recruited my 14 year old and my sister and brother in law to be "assistant cooks".   My BIL is buying a large demo Egg, and I figured this would be a great way to introduce him to all the things an Egg can do. 

This will be the first Omaha Eggfest and none of the cooks have ever done one, so we're all rookies.   Does anyone have any advice for a first timer?  Are there any unwritten rules, or is it just to cook, meet people, try some good food and have a relaxing day?

SmokinTiger81

Sounds like taking the fun out of an eggfest to have a schedule like that.  Just pick your menu and go with it.  Take more friends to help you cook so you have some wander around time too.  Share taste samples with cooks on each side of you.   Enjoy talking to tasters and sharing ideas

SmokinTiger81

Salty. It helps me to have as much as possible pre cut and measured per recipe and in labelled containers or ziplocks.  Whatever is easiest

Hotch

Have fun and prep everything you can at home. 

RRP

I'm no expert on large fests, but I have cooked at 20 small ones and attended several others as a taster. My experience is there is no organized attempt to entertain the public so they can flow thru the area grazing like cattle on a set pattern. The availability of the bulk of the food typically is 11:00 to say 1:00, but some of us also start having breakfast items ready by say 9 though the public is seldom there so these servings are for each other. I also take the time in the morning hour to bake a cake to be served later. And lastly since the ones I have participated in are funfests, not contests then they are all about comradery, answering questions from want-to-bes and some showing off is allowed! Besides unless your Eggfest is entirely different then we are all spending our own money for the food we cook and give away, so trying to tell someone that "your food should be ready at this this and this time period" probably would not set well with most of us.

SmokinTiger81

Salty.  It also helps to type and copy your recipes for people to pick up.   I did not do the first time I cooked and you gets tons of questions on the recipes.    Lot easier to say here it is but not a necessity.  And I have only cooked at georgia Mtn fest and eggtoberfest.  Both on the big end as to size.  

Jupiter Jim

As the others have said prep as much as possible at home, cook things that are quick cooks because it will all be over before you know it. At some point the tasters will be full and you will not be able to get them to eat anything. We do something for breakfast and usually it's mostly eaten by the cooks and if not the first tasters get some. We also bake an easy apple cake for later in the day and it takes an hour to bake so it's first thing in the egg. I either cook bbq pulled pork pizzas or jalamango lime chicken wings and that's it. They always get great comments and are easy for us to cook. Your not providing a meal just samples. Never good to cook something you have never done before either, best to cook what you are good at.

SaltySam

Awesome!  Thanks so much for the responses.  @AlexKeenan I'm sorry for hijacking your thread, buddy.

RRP

Jupiter Jim said:

 Your not providing a meal just samples. 

Great advice! I can't tell you how many times I have seen first time participant eggers cook something like a full turkey complete with sides and wonder why no one ate more than a bite! Or people who spend all day egging a rack or two of ribs! Remember racks have 13 ribs so whether you fix 1 or 2 racks then only 13 or 26 people will be able to enjoy your effort! even if you don't get one yourself!

AlexKeenan

SaltySam said:

This makes me curious.  I'm cooking in my first Eggfest this coming weekend. Apparently there are a lot of things I hadn't yet considered.   When you say that the goal is to have food ready to eat every 15 minutes for eight hours...I take it you mean the tasters should have something to eat every 15 minutes, and not that the cooks should churn out something every 15 minutes.   That seems borderline impossible.  

I've been told that we will each get two demo Eggs to cook on.  I'm planning two separate dishes that should be fairly easy to cook at the same time.  I recruited my 14 year old and my sister and brother in law to be "assistant cooks".   My BIL is buying a large demo Egg, and I figured this would be a great way to introduce him to all the things an Egg can do. 

This will be the first Omaha Eggfest and none of the cooks have ever done one, so we're all rookies.   Does anyone have any advice for a first timer?  Are there any unwritten rules, or is it just to cook, meet people, try some good food and have a relaxing day?

At the private events (non-big green egg) we do food every 15 minutes! Most of this is just scheduling based on menu, equipment, and cooking times. So for example if you know a brisket takes X number of hours and you want it at Y time then it has to go into a smoker at Z. This also means it has to be prepped by Z. So you have to have the prep time scheduled. At these private events we are not 100 cooks cooking. We are a couple of dozen cooks putting together a carefully planned menu.

Darby_Crenshaw

If you can time a brisket within fifteen minutes, you are a better man than I

AlexKeenan

Brisket, pork shoulder, etc. all have a hold time in a fireless cooker or in a heated holding oven.
So you plan around the hold times so you can carve and serve in the 15 minute window.