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The maitre d'hotel looked on a slip of paper, ”There were two
hundred and forty people for the Gold Crown and we've seated them. I
think they're mostly in.”
”They're salesmen on salary,” Peter said. ”They must be there.
The dentists'll probably straggle and lot won't come.”
The maitre d'hotel agreed, "I heard there was a lot of drinking in
the rooms. Ice consumption is heavy, and room service had a run on
mixes. We thought it might cut the meal figure down.”
The question was how many convention meals to prepare at any
time. It gave a familiar headache to all three men. Convention organizers
gave the hotel a minimum guarantee, but in practice the figure could
change a hundred or two either way. A reason was uncertainty about
how many delegates would break up into smaller parties and not go to
the official banquets or, in other case, might come together in the last
minute.
The final minutes before a big convention banquet were always
tense in any hotel kitchen. It was an important moment, because all
involved knew that reaction to a crisis would show just how good or bad
their organization was.
Peter asked the maitre d'hotel, ”What was the original estimate?”
”For the dentists, five hundred. We are close to that figure and
we’ve begun serving. But they still come in.”
Are we counting the new arrivals?”
”I've a man there now. Here he is.” A red-coated captain was
coming quickly through the service doors from the Grand Ballroom.
Peter asked Andre Lemieux, ”If we have to, can we produce extra
food?”
”When we're required, monsieur, then we'll do our best.”
The maitre d'hotel talked with the captain, then returned to the
other two. ”An additional hundred and seventy people. They're flooding
in! We've already setting more tables.”
As always, crisis came with little warning. One hundred and
seventy extra meals, required at once, would strain the resources of any
kitchen. Peter turned to Andre and saw that the young Frenchman was
gone.
The sous-chef was already among his staff, giving quick orders.
”A junior cook to the main kitchen, there to take seven turkeys
roasting for tomorrow's cold collation ..." A shouted order to the
preparation room: ”Use the reserves! Speed up! Carve everything you
see!.. More vegetables! Steal some from the second banquet!” A second
junior cook was sent to the main kitchen to bring all vegetables he could

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