Previous Eggtoberfest and/or Festival Cooks Please Enter!!

Killit_and_Grillit

I attended Eggtoberfest for the first time with my group last year and we decided we are going to participate in 2017.

I'm trying to get a head start because I just got the go ahead from the BGE group that I could do all wild game servings and for you non hunters most big game seasons are coming to a close so I want to make sure I have enough of my serving options. 

I have about 10 different entree/app options and I am narrowing them down mostly by how much duck/whitetail/buffalo/axis/antelope ends up in my freezers over the next few weeks as everyone on my team wraps up their seasons. 

So, how many entree/appetizer options do you typically offer? Amount of servings per offering? I don't want to short change my station but I also don't want to spend the entire festival trying to crank out more food than I need. (Also its not like I'm picking this stuff up at Krogers and I don't want to be scrambling in September to be looking for archery season whitetails in a panic).

Any and all help is appreciated. 

smak

I try to do a minimum of 50 tastes per dish.  I count a taste as two to three bites (think meatball size) . 

Depending on what you are doing you can do multiple batches of a few things or one batch of a lot of things.  I tend to do the later. 

Killit_and_Grillit

@smak I am going to try and split the difference on some half prepped "app" type snacks (deer chili, smoked trout dip, dove or duck poppers) and true "egged" recipes (house favorites that can be done on a hefty scale and small serve are like stir fried brocolli and backstrap, buffalo meatloaf, axis meatball slider, maybe some smoked salmon, etc)

due to the fact that I have smaller quantities of multiple animals I may do the latter as well. Thanks for the help. 

georgia boy

@Killit_and_Grillit I see this is a pretty old thread, but thought I'd post my thoughts anyway.

This may or may not be helpful, but here goes.  Honestly, you could make 2000 servings and it'd probably all get eaten.  Last year I made the most I've made in years.  I did 2 dishes, each about 250 servings.  First dish was served around 11a (smoked chicken salad in lettuce cups).  

Second dish around 1p (brisket nachos with pickled jalapenos).  Each dish was completely gone in 45 mins.  No joke.  There's basically 200 chef tents and 4000 participants.

IMO, it just all depends how much time and effort you want to spend and balance that out with an opportunity to enjoy the event yourself.  It's good to have a few helping hands and rotate the cook / prep shifts, that way you and your team can have a chance to walk around the grounds, check out what other people are cooking, taste, chat with other chefs etc.  You'll be amazed at how fast the day goes by!

Also, without fail, most people run out of food mid afternoon.  So you'll definitely be a popular attraction if you serve something later in the day.  However, I think the "People's Choice" voting is due at like 3p.  Although, with all of the pro chef tents that have 10+ people cooking tomahawk reverse sear ribeyes, all of us amateurs have little chance of winning, ha.

Hope that helps?  Whatever you do, don't kill yourself.  The event isn't intended for all the chefs to feed 4000 people, its to show your spirit for BGE, meet other passionate chefs and cooks, and just have fun!