How To Feed 130 People.
Scout leader Panda sent me a screenshot of his order, asking me if it's right.
I saw 25kg of mince and checked out.
The menu - taco spice mix wrap dinner for 130 people.
Don't bulk buy and transport; use companies that deliver to your location instead.
We like to shit on big corporates until we need the benefits of logistics and convenience. We blow raspberries on advertising, social media, and the brain rot caused by screen time until we start our business (‘TikTok business is my life’, ‘ you gotta have proper headshots for LinkedIn’, ‘check out the leads from Facebook’).
I plugged his recipe into ChatGPT, and she1 spat out similar ingredients, but with an extra 13 cans of tomatoes.
“What? No,”Panda replied. “We will serve fresh tomatoes, so we will not need that many tomatoes in the meat sauce.”
“Also, we are using this recipe for spice mix.”
A link to RecipeTin Eats.
No difference with AI then, since RecipeTin is all about catering to the safe mid-tier level of taste buds.
Hey, it's a scout camp, not a gourmet camp.
My role was ‘Adult Helper’, not chef.
I think I even paid to be at this camp.
Meanwhile, my wife - scout leader Totoro, who was in charge of lunches, trusted her AI recipe wholeheartedly. Not by choice, simply because no one from the leadership could give her any concrete advice.
We don’t use AI by choice. We use AI because no one wants to be accountable for anything.
The correct answer to cooking taco mince for 130 people is:
1. Dump the mince in the giant pot.
2. Add the spice mix, add water, and simmer.
3. Use the same time to prep vegetables and wrap.
Done.
We somehow decided to brown the mince on the BBQ grill before adding it to the pot, like people with integrity and taste.
Not a giant 96L pot, but four ‘not-small-not-big’ grandmother pots.
What is this? Small batch taco mince?
The first batch was adequate. We calculated the weight of the minced by empty containers and applied the correct ratio of seasoning (2 tbsp to 500g of mince).
Once we transferred the mince to the four separate pots and started the second batch, adding the stock, slowly reducing, and combining them into a big bain-marie, things started getting messy.
In theory, the scouts boys were supposed to be the responsible group, to help with cooking the meat, but at the end of the day, all teenage boys are the same2.
Forget culinary school or staging; anyone who wants to work in the kitchen should try volunteering for a community service or event that feeds more than 100 people.
Only when all the ingredients are not the same size, same weight, when you don't have a scale, your favourite spatula, no whisk, no control over the heat source, only then you will realise, cookbooks are all a scam.
There is no kitchen god.
Food media with their celebrities with non-sticky armpits and perfect polo shirts can suck on my pale brown meat.
It’s all tasting as you go.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Soy Sauce, Sugar, Mirin to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.