SC - A&S Compeitions

[Peters, Rise J.]

Murkial raised a good question about judging criteria (extra material 
snipped for brevity):

>>My cooking was judged on a standard sheet used by all
of the judging.  One of the categories was for creativeness and by its
description, I would have done better to make it "peroid" then "period".  Is
this a standard practice?  The definition was (this is off the top of my 
head
folks) if you made something non-period 0 pts, somewhat period 1 pt.,
Somewhat period with documentation 2 pts, an exact copy of period materials
and work 3 pts. (this was my score on each of my dishes), used period
materials, but made your own item 4 pts, use of period materials, but with 
an
artist interpretation of how they should be used, extra consideration for
designs special tailored to an event, or device etc... 5 pts.

>>To me this should not apply to cooking in a competition, just because of 
the
way we try to get people to cook actual period items, not just "they used it
in period so I can make it any way I want to because they could have done it
that way.  Am I correct in my thinking?  Is this done this way throughout 
the
Known World?  How are items judged elsewhere, if not?

I think you are correct that this criterion may be difficult to apply 
correctly, and maybe harder to apply correctly to cooking than to certain 
other re-creational arts.

First, let's think of an instance where we can apply that criterion and make 
sense of it.  Take ... painting, for example.  Non-period and somewhat 
period are self-explanatory.  An exact copy of an existing painting using 
period materials and techniques would be a 3.  A somewhat altered copy of an 
existing painting might be a 4.  But going to Coronation and conceiving and 
executing a painting of the crowning of your own kingdom's royalty, in the 
style and using the materials that a medieval painter would have used if 
facing that same scene from his own artistic standpoint using the materials 
then available... that's a whole higher level of understanding of exactly 
what the medieval artist was up to.

One key point is that the person doing the work has understood both the 
medieval materials/techniques and the underlying aesthetic well enough to do 
original work consistent with them.  The result is not "peri-oid"; it is a 
piece that a medieval artist could have done with the materials and 
aesthetic s/he had.  And the way that you come to have that level of grasp 
of the aesthetic is by doing lots and lots of copies, just as apprentices 
did copies of masterworks.

Maybe the problem with cooking is that judges don't understand the 
interpretive aspects of cooking from medieval recipes?  Or that we are still 
in the stage of learning to do exact copies, whatever that means?

=Caitlin

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