BE Theatre Festival, July 2010

There has been such a rush of jobs that the documentation of some has fallen behind. So, dating back to July, there follow some pictures of our participation in, and feeding of, Birmingham European Theatre Festival. Our task - providing lunch every day for the casts and crews who had come from around Europe for five days of theatre, and dinner every night for these and the public, up to a 'full house' of 120 people.
We devised a menu which we thought achievable with three of us (Mike couldn't be there and so Steve Wilson (of Treehouse Café) - with whom we have worked and collaborated before - joined us. Over five days we had delivered over eighty kilos of amazing meat from Berkswell Traditional Meats in Coventry, who had supplied us on previous jobs, as well as deliveries of produce, cooking equipment, dry goods and construction materials from all around Birmingham.
On the final night of the festival, we provided a Menu to illustrate another incarnation of
Eat Your Heart Out, a chilling piece of immersive theatre devised by the
Kindle Theatre Company, our frequent collaborators.

The Dining Room, and location of our second 'kitchen'.The last time we were in this room, it had been transformed into a post-apocalyptic junk kingdom for Eat Your Heart Out. We filled it with two 140' tables to seat 120.

                                 Soaking Kidney Beans

 

                                A lunch sitting

                                 Prep Fun

We had lovely volunteers to help us get food to the diners, wash up and calm our frayed nerves throughout the week. Above is Flamische for lunch one day.

 

We made bread for lunch almost everyday, which we kneaded with the help of music and dance, as shown by Steve and Amy

 

Cooking a lot of sausages on a paella pan, kindly lent to us by Steve at SDS Produce, who also supplied a lot of our fruit and vegetables over the week.

Steve tackling a whole mess of Peri-Peri Chicken

Ingredients for almighty burger-making session

 

We were serenaded by these guys under the kitchen window.

                                 Brum

Barbecuing some of the 25 kilos of beef brisket, which was to be followed by a long braise.

The braising station. Electrical power around the complex of the AE Harris building was conditional on extreme proximity and careful judging of the power needs of our machines. We tested its capacity and blew the power several times with our induction hobs, and so had to cook on makeshift cooking stations. The pot above held fifteen kilo of beef brisket, while the other ten kilos braised in an improvised dutch oven in the barbecue.

 

Some member of Kindle Theatre warming up before the performance of Eat Your Heart Out.

Steve checking, and saluting, the brisket.

Cans to hold the stew for Eat Your Heart Out.

 

 

Like a knight in shining white whites, Mike turned up on the last day and is seen here 'plating' Charcoal Sherbet for Eat Your Heart Out.