SC - re: Tasting Dinners

[Brenna]

maddie teller-kook wrote:

> > It may be splitting hairs, but serving special dishes or the same dishes with
> > special, more expensive ingredients to the the high table might also be
> > considered
> > to be a similar misuse of event or group money. I am undecided myself on this one.
> >
>
> I must disagree with you here Stefan.  Serviing 'special' dishes to the crown or
> ranking nobility in a group is a very period thing to do. I don't usually cook special
> dishes but I might serve the same dish differently to the high table. For example, a
> long time ago I did a perio-oid dish called Basque Chicken. I used chicken parts for
> the dish served to the populace. For the high table I used Rock Cornish Hens to dress
> the dish up for the high table.
>

I'll refer back to two posts here, so bear with me.  I posted a similar subject on a
different line a week or so ago.  It was a story about a feast I attended where this was
done and it put such a load on the cook that we "below the salts" had a lousy meal while
the high table thouroghly enjoyed feast.  My caution is, if you plan to do this, make sure
you have adequate help to ensure that everyone else doesn't suffer while you're impressing
the king and queen.  The other post is the line about the personal cooks of royalty coming
with them.  This is an option.  If a special set of dishes is to be prepared for the
crown, why not have a second cook on hand to ensure it all comes off without a hitch?!  I
know, I let my bad experiences speak for me like everyone else.

Brenna
(off her soapbox once again)


============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================