Good Housekeeping
Ebury Press, 144 pages, £17.99
ISBN 0 0918 0776 X
Evangelism with food is now very much part of the life of the local church. It used to be coffee mornings, but now, if you want to lever stressed and depressed commuters our of their TV goggling in the evening to come and hear the gospel, the least you can offer (apart from a good speaker) is a decent buffet.
I put in the word 'decent' because it might just be all right to present offerings with lookalike entries for 'The World's Strangest Flan' competition when it is an in-house fellowship affair, but such efforts might insult the sensitivities of your average member of Delia Smith's dining club - which, let's face it, must be 50% of the population. The offence of the cross is one thing, food poisoning is another!
As one who regularly had the responsibility of catering for anything between 30 and 100 people in the challenging surroundings of the average church kitchen (Primitive Methodist?), I was delighted to come across Cooking for Crowds from the Good Housekeeping stable. Mistakes-I've cooked a few (and did it my way!) and this book has the warnings (e.g. 'this menu requires a lot of oven space') and the practical hints (e.g. 'decide where to stack the dirty plates before the evening starts').
There are plenty of really mouthwatering and tested dishes and menus which work out when multiplied, plus help in adjusting the quantities according to your numbers. There are count-downs for those of us who like to be told things like: '7.00pm turn on the oven'. Apart from the seasonal/special occasion menus, there is an excellent section on basic recipes for feeding multitudes, which includes freezing and prepare ahead instructions on such delights as 'Fruity Moroccan Lamb' (missionary evening?) and 'Provencal Chicken Bake' (YPF weekend away?).
Glossy and pricey, as all such books are, this could be an inspiring investment for your church catering team, or indeed for you (Hebrews 13.2; 1 Peter 4.9).
