SC - Allergies - again..

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

N
g
Hi all from Anne-Marie
gb says in response to my comments:>
>
>The SCA isn't a business, so it's different -- I never have any
>expectation of being accomodated, and sometimes I get forced to pay
>for feasts I can't eat any of just so I can sit with my friends. But I
>still can't imagine why any cook would prefer answering lots of phone
>calls to having the reservations taker simply compile a list of
>folks with common situations.

I guess that makes sense, assuming you can come up with a list of "common 
situations". Here the biggies seem to be MSG, which is a common 
ingredient in many canned broths. A little legwork and you can find 
broths that dont have it. Someone once told me a good piece of 
advice...if you do amenu where no single ingredient is in anything, you 
should be ok. Makes sense to me. (though we fell off that bandwagon with 
our last Elizabethan feast. EVERY dish had dairy, either butter or milk. 
Oh well. Only had to tell one person I had no food for her, and that was 
only because she called me three days before, when the menu was totally 
planned and many of the ingredients already bought. So, she didn't buy a 
ticket for the feast and came to the event anyway.

>
>> Oh...and when I say "far enough in advance", I'm talking about the 
>> months and months of menu planning stage. Not the right-before-the-feast 
>> stage!
>
>So you would suggest that every ovo-lacto vegetarian should call every
>cook several months before each event? Or is this your suggestion only
>for unusual allergies?
>

What I would suggest is that if you care what you eat, you should call 
the cooks for any feast you're planning on attending. And, yes, for 
feasts with me as kitchen head, I have the menu planned several months 
ahead of time. It takes us six months to a year to get all the recipes 
reconstructed for a big banquet, repeatedly tested, budgetted and planned.

As I have said before, I always try to make sure there's one or two 
dishes in every course for lacto-ovo vegetairans to eat, just cuz I know 
there's bunches of them in my barony. I'm not making separate dishes for 
them, just planning the menu so they can participate in the banquet if 
they so chose. Make sense?

I have a good friend who is deathly allergic (swell up and go to the 
hospital allergic, not just intolerant) to dairy and wheat. When I know 
she's coming to one of our banquets, I make a point of making a list for 
her of the dishes she can eat. She also knows enough to bring her own 
Elaine-safe food, just in case. She expects nothing but accurate 
information, and I do what I can to accomodate her needs.

I wouldnever suggest that all us cooks need to accomodate everyone with 
food dislikes/intolerances/allergies/needs. All I'm saying is that if 
we're courteous and gracous with each other, we can feed the gross 
majority of the folks out there. And that courtesy goes both ways. Never 
really had much trouble with that here...folks with funny food needs seem 
to be pretty grown up about it and take care of themselves.

- --Anne-Marie, who someday would like to serve a fast day meal...fish fish 
fish! :D

- --
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anne-Marie Rousseau
rousseau at scn.org
Seattle, Washington
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