SC - accomodating vegetarians

[Lady Elisabeth]

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Gwen Cat said...

> Here in Caerthe the paid-and-eating-feast folk sit together, but are
> segregated (separate tables in a group)  from the
> off-board-bring-your-own-food-folk  who sit together.  When I go to an
> event I go (among many other reasons) to be able to socialize with my
> friends.  If much of the feast is stuff I can not eat I have two options,
> 1) pay for a feast I can not eat so that I may sit with friends, (and
> clutter the already small and crowded table with my personal food)  or 2)
> do my own off board thing and sit segregated (A sore point, too many years
> was I relegated to the "childrens table" at family gatherings, because I
> was oldest not yet grown and could "supervise" the children).  Neither
> option appeals to me.

Gwen, I can fully understand and appreciate that neither option
appeals to you for whatever reason. If I was more of a bi**ch I would
tell you to get over yourself, as everyone had to sit at the
children's table at some point in their life, but I can't because you
do bring up some very valid points. Unfortunately the reality of the
situation, as you well know, is that on- and off- board pretty well
have to be separate, if for no other reason, than the cook and serving
staff's sanity. :)

> At a recent feast the feast coordinator had been contacted (over 30 days in
> advance) about the allergy (not mine, but I am too familiar with it) and
> stated, NO, the offending ingredient will not be used.  When we got to the
> site not only was the ingredient being used; 2 of the 3 courses used it in
> their main (meat) dishes, as well as several side dishes, thereby rendering
> 2/3 of the feast essentially inedible!  A nasty surprise.   As I had agreed
> to help in the kitchens I was able to monitor very carefully what was safe,
> and was able to save out some of one meat dish before the allergen was
> added, thereby increasing the edible parts to more than 50%.

THAT IS HORRIBLE. This is inexcusable behavior on BOTH the cook and
the gentles part. If the Kitchen Steward has a menu already firmed up
a month before the event, the menu should be posted somewhere
(Canton/Baronial/Kingdom home page, event home page, flyer, sca
publication, where ever) WITH ingredient lists if doing so
electronically. It amazes me that there are still cooks out there that
don't exercise this practice. I cannot think of one reason why you
shouldn't do this except laziness. It saves alot of time, frustration
on the populaces part, and situations like the one you just quoted
from arising. However, since the gentle in question did call, I still
wouldn't have taken the cook at face value one month before, and would
have reconfirmed same closer to the event. Things CAN change and if
YOU (read: collective YOU) are the one with the problem then YOU are
the one to make sure YOU don't ingest that offending ingredient. I
think this is an issue that could be best put to bed if cooks just
made this a common practice and gentles stopped trying to second guess
us cooks. I even think it should go as far as BoD policy. At the very
least, it would prevent this issue from coming up over and over again
on the List <grin>.


> When I cook I make sure my menu is balanced, so that only a limited number
> of dishes have a given ingredient, thereby leaving sufficient others to
> choose from, so noone leaves hungry.  We had a local allergy to garlic - I
> love the stuff, but I would on general principles plan to serve a feast
> where in one course the meat dish has garlic, but the side dishes are safe,
> and in another course a side dish contains garlic, but the meat dish is
> safe and not feel like I was depriving the diner.  On the other hand if I
> made a chicken broth using garlic, and served the chicken accompanied by
> rice cooked with some of the broth, and also served the soup, and of course
> some wonderful pickled mushrooms (lemon and garlic in the marinade), and
> the next course had a wonderus baron of beef studded with pepper and
> garlic... I would be guilty of very poor planing. and if the gentle had
> been assured no garlic would be used, and then arrived  to this Gilroy
> delight... I feel they would have cause to be displeased.  And
> unfortunately, as A.M.s Walnut episode confirms, it is not as uncommon as
> would be nice.

It sounds like you are a very conscientious and courteous cook. It
sounds like you genuinely care about who you are cooking for. I really
really believe that if more people were like this we wouldn't have
nearly the "medieval food sucks" attitudes that can prevail with the
uneducated palate (not to be confused with the proverbial
unsophisticated one). One of the things I do for feasts etc. is to
sometimes offer a little on-the-spot education for those that care to
read it. You do sorta have a captive audience when the populace is
sitting waiting for Feast to start. What I usually do is a sort of
little Feast brochure containing the menu, the ingredients and a
little background on the theme, choice dishes, whatever). I think that
most appreciate not only knowing WHAT they are eating, but WHY, WHEN,
WHERE etc. They may not want to be cooks or explore the fascinating
world of the culinary arts but if we made it less of a secret there
would be less people afraid of the unknown (and up to now, the
mysterious world of the culinary arts for most of the populace).
Comment to a person who sews well that their garb is really stunning.
See where that leads. Most will thank you politely and then expound on
the WHY, WHEN, WHERE etc. Same as a fighter, archer, embroiderer so on
and so forth. So why has it been this way for so long for the culinary
arts? It sure doesn't have to.

> (Taking a smoked chicken under the rock with her because she figures to be there a while.)

Absolutely not, as i said earlier you have made some really valid
points.


Respectfully
Micaylah
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