The head table would receive one-half chicken, or more, per person, while the lower tables would get a chicken dish where it had been cut into pieces and placed with a broth, a grain, etc. The nobles at the head table got more because they sent bits down to people at the lower tables as a mark of favor or special note. In other words, the second and third course would consist of a similar number of dishes but only 16 or so would be edible. Today, we simply don't have the 'servants' to be able to pull this off at most events. As SCA armor, for example, has progressed from freon cans and plastic barrels to more accurate metal and leather re-creations, so we should be progressing in cookery.
More accurate armor increases the medieval feel of our tournaments.
The nicer the armor looks, the more other fighters want to have something like it. The same applies to feasts and cookery. If our feasts have the look and feel of medieval times eventually others will want to do the same and we will have increased our knowledge of how people cooked and ate.