What makes a good cook for an eggfest?

20stone · May 2016

RRP said:

cmac610 said:

RRP said:

HoustonEgger said:

For the folks that have cooked at an Eggfest, do you factor the cost of the food into your planning? I know some folks sell rubs or shirts to help offset the cash outlay, but curious to know how everyone handles the expense of doing an Eggfest

I never give it a thought. Typically I spend $40 or so, but then our dealer gives us a 20# bag of lump in appreciation so net net it cost me about $20. Nobody sells anything at our tests - seems like only the big ones have that kind of draw.

"$40"? @RRP how are you pulling that off? We just did our first Eggfest and probably laid out $500+ on just the food we served. I need your menu!

$500???? HOLY COW!!! I have now seen your menu of items which is VERY elaborate but you obviously were serving hundreds and hundreds more people than I do at our small eggfest, but even at that $500? Are you actually a restaurant operator or on the competition circuit? If not, you sure are professional for a first time egger! Not many here are going to be willing to shell out $500 for food to give away!

@cmac610, don't let them shame you too much on that. We go a little over the top, too.

That is what @caliking and I turned into bulgogi last week. You can probably do the math.... not to mention our arty serving eggs

RRP · May 2016

WOWSER - leaving the impression to potential egg festers that you need to spend $500 or stay at home is not a good impression IMHO.

Focker · May 2016

Screw cookin'. With items like what's posted, I should hover around these eggs with full blown michelin menus, eating for free.

DoubleEgger · May 2016

Folks cooking at the NCBB spent some decent coin only serving about a hundred folks. It's all about what you enjoy doing...

20stone · May 2016

RRP said:

WOWSER - leaving the impression to potential egg festers that you need to spend $500 or stay at home is not a good impression IMHO.

Far from it. I'm just saying that there is a range, and some clearly go overboard... which is fine, too.

Down here, at least, the sponsors usually hook us up with grocery gift cards and other schwag, which will also help defray the cost for some.

FWIW, $500 is less than $1/serving around here (I think we banged out more like 600 servings at Space City, with plenty of food to take home), which isn't crazy by any stretch.

If you can bang out 600 servings for $50, more power to you.

Focker · May 2016

The ones going overboard are compensating.

RRP · May 2016

20stone said:

If you can bang out 600 servings for $50, more power to you.

Excuse me...I never said I was banging out 600 serving for $50! Oh never mind...

DMW · May 2016

I don't even want to think about what I've spent on eggfests and other egg related events.... But it was worth it.

Darby_Crenshaw · May 2016

I wouldn't mind spending coin if the people actually said thank you and waited until you set the food out before they grabbed it

who was it that set out a tray of raw chicken to be cooked, turned around to get something, and when they turned back to start cooking, found half the chicken gone?

anyway. The few fests i have been to were about hanging with the boys for a weekend, cooking, drinking (a little), and fishing.

Food of course. But the best food was at the after party

i'm only willing to help a faceless corporation sell high end products at my expense to a certain point.

Focker · May 2016

Nicely put valid points Darby.
The after party is where the real magic happens.

"A little". Hahahahahaha

SMITTYtheSMOKER · May 2016

All Eggfests are not the same.

We are fortunate to have a great stable of cooks out here after 11 years. We try to run a break even event and hand out a $300 valued goodie bag to each cook, just to help offset all cook's expenditures that are incurred. We do have typically 26/30 cooks and 500+ tasters. Our teams that tend to go "over the top" do have a chance to win a Large Egg, Mini max as well as other great prizes each year.

Focker · May 2016

SMITTYtheSMOKER said:

All Eggfests are not the same.

Oh, I couldn't agree more. I think everyone should come out to Hiawassee, and pay the Don a visit.

A nice gesture, but I'm not in it for the monay, or even a t-shirt.
I know full well, wtf I'm getting into, and expect zero return.

Jupiter Jim · May 2016

Focker said:

The ones going overboard are compensating.

Yep compensating for the slackers!

Zippylip · May 2016

egger ave said:
IMHO A lot of what we eat and like is the result of marketing and tweaking for our taste buds, not that it tastes great or is good for us.

Yea & I only like thin women because of marketing and tweaking of both heads by Vogue Magazine.

Jupiter Jim · May 2016

Kay and I try to cook something that we think the tasters will like, something that won't break our bank and something that is a fast cook.

We have come to realize that most fest have lots of meat paired with more meat! chicken and pork mostly.

Also many people have no idea that one can bake a cake/bread in there egg so we always bake one of KayNOcook's easy apple cakes. We do BBQ pulled pork pizzas too, get the very thin pizza crust at Restaurant Depot like 30 crust for $30.00 I'm sure they are not as good as homemade crust but we usually can't make them fast enough and people come back for more. I actually had a guy watch me take a pizza off the egg at the Tampa Bay fest 2 years ago and say you baked that in the egg? Kids are always excited when I ask them if they want a cheese only pizza.

Jalamango Lime wings are always another great hit. We enjoy the comradery of cooking at Eggfest and it's nice to get swag stuff but sometimes it's not much but that is certainly ok with us. One fest that we always cook at we are give a lot of pork and chicken wings to cook because they want to make sure there is enough food for the taster.

I hope this post encourages people that are on the fence about cooking at a fest, we always cook at fest.

Big_Green_Craig · May 2016

RRP said:

cmac610 said:

RRP said:

HoustonEgger said:

For the folks that have cooked at an Eggfest, do you factor the cost of the food into your planning? I know some folks sell rubs or shirts to help offset the cash outlay, but curious to know how everyone handles the expense of doing an Eggfest

I never give it a thought. Typically I spend $40 or so, but then our dealer gives us a 20# bag of lump in appreciation so net net it cost me about $20. Nobody sells anything at our tests - seems like only the big ones have that kind of draw.

"$40"? @RRP how are you pulling that off? We just did our first Eggfest and probably laid out $500+ on just the food we served. I need your menu!

$500???? HOLY COW!!! I have now seen your menu of items which is VERY elaborate but you obviously were serving hundreds and hundreds more people than I do at our small eggfest, but even at that $500? Are you actually a restaurant operator or on the competition circuit? If not, you sure are professional for a first time egger! Not many here are going to be willing to shell out $500 for food to give away!

My Eggtoberfest budget last year was $3500. Then again, we fed all 5000 people.

caliking · May 2016

I don't think the message at any time was that you have to spend big bux to cook at an eggfest. It's like buying a car - some people buy a Hyundai and some people buy a Mercedes. Some people buy a Ford. And some people buy a Bentley.

Folks sign up and cook what they like, and what they think other folks would like. I don't think there is that much more to it.

But I have found that cooking my heart out at eggfests has helped me compensate for soooooooo many things. Just so happens that I had a good time and met some great folks while doing it.

tarheelmatt · May 2016

DoubleEgger said:

Folks cooking at the NCBB spent some decent coin only serving about a hundred folks. It's all about what you enjoy doing...

I didn't keep track of it, probably should have. Countless trips to the stores for stuff, and I still forgot items.

RRP · May 2016

Big_Green_Craig said:

My Eggtoberfest budget last year was $3500. Then again, we fed all 5000 people.

WOW! My hat is off to you, Sir!!! That is called having some serious skin in the game!

Spring Chicken · May 2016

Spring Hen and I have been to over 75 Eggfests and/or Egg related events all around the country. We've even stayed at fellow Egghead's homes. We even hosted a few Egg related parties here at the Chicken Ranch. I have video's of most of the Eggfests we've attended.

As busy as we've been, there are some who have been to many more than us.

Back when a 'successful' Eggfest was 100 or more attendees, life was pretty simple and affordable. We could pack what we needed in the trunk of a compact car and put on a pretty good show at an Eggfest. And we had plenty of time to meet other Cooks and get to know them.

Nowadays, Eggfests of a thousand or more participants are becoming common place. Cooks need to take all kinds of gear and partially prepared food, stay in rental houses instead of hotels so we have access to a kitchen, and staying extra days to enjoy with friends. We plan longer, spend more and work harder than ever before.

We need two or even three Eggs at Eggfests just to cook what we plan to serve. And multiple Eggs at home are common.

Many have invested in RV's which they use for both Eggfests and family weekends, always with an Egg at the ready no matter where they park for the night.

The quality and quantity of food we prepare and hand out to strangers has gone from 'fast food' quality to 'five-star' restaurant quality.

Serving on cheap napkins has evolved upward to serving in special containers purchased specifically for our handouts. Even the grid lifters, tongs and spatulas are custom made, as are some highly detailed, laser cut grids. Yeti coolers replaced styrofoam and we are picky about the grades of meat we give away.

A high quality camera has become a 'must have' accessory to any Egghead who wishes to share their cooks with fellow Eggheads on multiple forums.

The list of what makes for a great Eggfest for Cooks and Tasters alike goes on, most with considerable expense attached, but when you get right down to it, does the expenditure justify the reward? I think the answer is obvious - YES! Or most of us would have dropped out years ago.

Given the tremendous popularity of Eggfests, especially here in Texas, we finally came to the conclusion that we spend a lot of money on Eggfests. No surprise there.

Are we going to change anything? Probably not. Our reasoning is like everyone else's - it's fun, we eat well and we get to meet some really, really nice people who share our passion.

That's the reward, and it's priceless.

Spring "Did Someone Say Let's Have An Eggfest?" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

tarheelmatt · May 2016

RRP said:

Big_Green_Craig said:

My Eggtoberfest budget last year was $3500. Then again, we fed all 5000 people.

WOW! My hat is off to you, Sir!!! That is called having some serious skin in the game!

A lot of skin! Maybe four....

Dyal_SC · May 2016

I always plan to cook for about 4 hours worth of food. Biggest thing to do is to not get so busy that you don't get to go around and meet the other eggers and try some of their dishes as well. We typically make something breakfasty in the morning, then a main course that is still fingerfood-ish (wings, Eggrolls, fatties, etc), then end our cook with something sweet (usually some cookies). Most are there to have fun and fellowship with others, which is what I personally think it's all about. The ones that are treating it like a competition are missing out IMO, but to each his own.

cmac610 · May 2016

caliking said:

I don't think the message at any time was that you have to spend big bux to cook at an eggfest. It's like buying a car - some people buy a Hyundai and some people buy a Mercedes. Some people buy a Ford. And some people buy a Bentley.

Folks sign up and cook what they like, and what they think other folks would like. I don't think there is that much more to it.

But I have found that cooking my heart out at eggfests has helped me compensate for soooooooo many things. Just so happens that I had a good time and met some great folks while doing it.

Agree 100%. I was not bragging nor trying to shame anyone that spent less. We had a blast planning a more "elaborate" menu and knew what the costs associated would be. That was our choice. We did it for fun, and yes, we're a bit competitive, so we wanted to place well. Hell, I've probably done dumber things with $500 that didn't bring as much joy anyway. Well...there was that one night...

And @SMITTYtheSMOKER...the goodie bags were TOP NOTCH! Thanks!!

caliking · May 2016

And eggfests are cheaper than therapy/lithium/Prozac.

cmac610 · May 2016

Dyal_SC said:

Most are there to have fun and fellowship with others, which is what I personally think it's all about. The ones that are treating it like a competition are missing out IMO, but to each his own.

Like everything in life, it's about balance. It wasn't always easy pulling myself away from the Egg, but meeting the other teams, cooks and staff that was there was a great part of the day.

Foghorn · May 2016

I've actually never even thought to add up what I spent cooking at eggfests, but it's probably fair to say that each one was closer to $50 than $500. With that said, sharing a tent with Team @caliking and @20stone, has made me start thinking of ways to up my game for the next time I'm able to get to one. This is not to say that they made me feel bad because all I did was baked some apple slices wrapped in storebought crescent rolls. It is just that being there and seeing others bring their "A" game pushes me to want to be better every time I cook. As a result, by the next time I cook at an eggfest I will have continued to evolve as an outdoor cook and I will likely think of something different to cook. It's just a case of people pushing and supporting each other to be better at a hobby.

But the real challenge is - as @cmac610 stated - trying to find balance between trying to cook something that makes everybody say "Wow!" - or wins a prize or contest, vs being able to relax, drink adult beverages, and enjoy what everybody else is doing. There's room for all approaches at an eggfest. That's part of what makes it great to go to one.

20stone · May 2016

Foghorn said:

...But the real challenge is - as @cmac610 stated - trying to find balance between trying to cook something that makes everybody say "Wow!" - or wins a prize or contest, vs being able to relax, drink adult beverages, and enjoy what everybody else is doing. There's room for all approaches at an eggfest. That's part of what makes it great to go to one.

That is the beauty of the Salado EggFest. While we can all murder ourselves on Saturday banging out 600 - 800 tastes, you have both Friday AND Saturday night to go a little slower and share fun food with the other cooks.

I would like to be able to walk around a bit the day of, however. We did find at Space City that having a few more hands helping out makes a world of difference.

For the record, @Foghorn, those apple crescent thingies were tasty, and your beer cooler was off the chain. It was also great to share a tent with a normal sized person for a change

cmac610 · May 2016

20stone said:

Foghorn said:

...But the real challenge is - as @cmac610 stated - trying to find balance between trying to cook something that makes everybody say "Wow!" - or wins a prize or contest, vs being able to relax, drink adult beverages, and enjoy what everybody else is doing. There's room for all approaches at an eggfest. That's part of what makes it great to go to one.

and your beer cooler was off the chain.

"Beer cooler" @Foghorn? That sounds like a good Memorial Weekend drink. Recipe?

20stone · May 2016

cmac610 said:

20stone said:

Foghorn said:

...But the real challenge is - as @cmac610 stated - trying to find balance between trying to cook something that makes everybody say "Wow!" - or wins a prize or contest, vs being able to relax, drink adult beverages, and enjoy what everybody else is doing. There's room for all approaches at an eggfest. That's part of what makes it great to go to one.

and your beer cooler was off the chain.

"Beer cooler" @Foghorn? That sounds like a good Memorial Weekend drink. Recipe?

Reach into @Foghorn's beer cooler
Pull out a biiiiiiig bottle of an impossible to get Belgian ale (@texaswig asked him if his son "kiestered it" down to Salado from college)
Open
Drink, and (grudgingly) pass around
Repeat

Foghorn · May 2016

20stone said:

Foghorn said:

...But the real challenge is - as @cmac610 stated - trying to find balance between trying to cook something that makes everybody say "Wow!" - or wins a prize or contest, vs being able to relax, drink adult beverages, and enjoy what everybody else is doing. There's room for all approaches at an eggfest. That's part of what makes it great to go to one.

That is the beauty of the Salado EggFest. While we can all murder ourselves on Saturday banging out 600 - 800 tastes, you have both Friday AND Saturday night to go a little slower and share fun food with the other cooks.

I would like to be able to walk around a bit the day of, however. We did find at Space City that having a few more hands helping out makes a world of difference.

For the record, @Foghorn, those apple crescent thingies were tasty, and your beer cooler was off the chain. It was also great to share a tent with a normal sized person for a change

Yeah, @20stone, I definitely spent more on beer than on food this year. I don't see that changing going forward.

And I love that you brought those homemade "table elevators" so the prep and serving tables were up at the appropriate height for a normal person. I was thinking that next time we get together you should probably bring a couple of extra table elevators that we can secure in some way to poor little @caliking's shoes.

What makes a good cook for an eggfest?

Comments

Categories