SC - Cooking in a Period Environment

[Mark Schuldenfrei]

  What a great idea!  There is never enough teaching of cooking techniques
  around here. When I last asked locally for help in learning to redact, I
  was told to go get a book. (lotsa help there **sigh**)  Actually seeing how
  to go through one redaction would be extremely helpful for getting newbies
  started, and hopefully start to create a pool of trained kitchen help.  If
  you ever decide to do this in the East, please let me know - I and a whole
  pile of friends would be there!

Too late.

Last January, EKU was held in Carolingia.  My wife was cooking the feast.
She turned to a number of good local cooks, and asked each of them to
prepare a one hour class, each of which would produce something for the
feast.  The balance of the feast was cooked in the normal manner, and was
designed both to complement the food, and to cover in case any one class
failed to produce comestibles.

I thought it was a great success: there were at least four classes that I
recall: period bread, sauce making, period plate decorations and period
tavern food (with an orange chicken dish to DIE for.)  I know there were
some other classes.

Dante did this partially because, being 5 months pregnant, she didn't want
to have to cook everything... now that the baby is born, I don't think
she'll be doing it again for at least a little while.  But I hope someone
else will do it soon.  I know that a similar feast was held in the West a
few weeks later.  (Hi Siobhan!)

(I swore that I wouldn't autocrat an event for my babies first year: but I
am starting to wonder if a simple local cooks and brewers collegium might
not be a wonderful thing to host up here in Carolingia...)  (And a friend is
asking me to run a simple event for her... my good intentions are melting
away. :-)

	Tibor