I had a ton of fun!
I kinda’ felt bad for X Panther and the very few other kitchen helpers though. I’m thinking that next year, a TON more help for them would be good.
Just a random thought, I’m sure that there will be more to come.
Like I was telling them, they just need to offer more incentive for people to do it. Why should somebody offer to do a job that they have to pay to do (the $10 food handling certification) when they can just go help set up a shower for free? 
(I did both, btw. YOU’RE WELCOME. ;D ) There should be something additional that kitchen help get.
I suggest a hat.
Yeah, that does make sense.
“I cooked for # furries and all I got was this stupid hat”
One of the features of CFT is that you get fed.
However, there were some who cooked their own meals.
Perhaps in the future, meals can be a membership package.
I have found that the logistics of feeding a large number of people start to get pretty overwhelming as the group grows in size. Perhaps considering pot luck dinners and hunt for yourself breakfast and lunches.
I think the kitchen staff did a great job by the way. It is not easy to feed that many people!
Demon Fox
“Hunt-for-yourself” meals sounds like a risky idea. We can’t expect everyone to bring sensible food or haul their own means to cook it. As a con that takes place in the woods we should still try to provide cheap but filling meals for our attendees. Sure there’s a town nearby but we should encourage people to use their money for the classes and art that are available instead of forcing some to save it for gas and buying food in town.
X definitely deserves props for pulling the kitchen off this year.
I think a lot of the meal problems could be fixed and everything made more efficient if there werent so many things that needed to be custom made one at a time. Also most of the components of the dishes that were made could have easily been made ahead of time in an actual kitchen rather than trying to whip it all up an hour before service. All the sauces and meats could be pre-cooked for sure and then just heated quickly before it’s served; rather than having to worry about under and overcooking things when using that jet engine of a stove.
If we had enough picnic tables it might make the service a bit easier if we did the dinners “family style” where you just put roughly 10 servings in a bowl and put it all out on the tables. Would probably also be a nice community and announcement time if everyone was together all at once for dinner.
Maybe just provide lunch and dinner? Even cutting out one meal would mean cutting a lot of stress out of meal prep. By the end, I was expecting X to snap and start eviscerating and serving up other staff members to con attendees.
Hell, that man spent a lot of money out of his own pocket to give us safe, healthy, and tasty food. The least we can do is find a way to take some of the weight off his shoulders for next con.
One of the biggest ideas we had as part of our restructuring efforts was an idea we had for kitchen staffing:
2 staff for each meal. One chef, one sous chef, one volunteer each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’ve had numerous bits of feedback and offers of help from various attendees who would be interested in making it so that each chef has to worry about one service per day, with Xander more or less working to coordinate the three of them. This is one of several ideas/proposals to the community that’ll be forthcoming. Although I have to say, Smight’s idea of serving meals family-style is pretty fantastic an idea.
Or even a buffet table with everything in pans and you come and make you a plate.
I second that idea.
Also, I’m going to attempt to get some decent kitchen experience/skills over the next year so I can assist next CFT. 
I’ve got great home cooking skills (just ask some of the Portland furs I’ve invited over for meals). I’ve put on dinners for groups of around ten people or more (a small number compared to the con attendance but hey it’s a start). Next year, I’m definitely planning to lend more of a hand to the kitchen.
how about any volunteer with a Food handlers card can get a $10 discount for joining a sous chef pool (limited of course) and picking a day to definately work 2 meals.
real soap for the cutting boards, washing the chicken off was gross :-p