food and appearance...was Re: SC - quick important note

[Elaine Koogler]

I think that one of the most important things is to make the food pleasing to
the eye...that goes a long way toward making it so that folks will try it.  I
try to serve the food in an attractive way...using various kinds of garnishes
and arrangements on platters/bowls/etc.  And they don't have to be ornate or
expensive.  We served Lombardy Tarts (Beet Pies) at a feast this past weekend in
a Barony whose "mascot" is the Md. Blue Crab.  We had a crab cookie cutter and
cut a crab-shape in the top crust of the pie, then offset the claws slightly to
add a slight 3-D shape.  I wish I could say that that one was my idea, but it
was created by one of my staff...and it was very well received!

Kiri

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:

> hey all from Anne-Marie
> Turning back to food :)
>
> Seumas says:
> >(mind starts to spin.....April 1 feast some year.....Spam
> >Cormarye....heh, heh....and a roast and gilded chicken sitting on a
> >gingerbread throne.....with crown)
> >
> >
> >See what she has to put up with?
> >
>
> does anyone rembmer the illusion banquet done by the madrone Culinary guild
> some years ago (it was before I moved here, so it must have been 10 years
> ago at least)
>
> see, the guild was feeling a bit frisky, so they prepared this menu....
> nothing was as it seemed. The "cherry pies" were actually beet, where
> someone made "cherries" with a melon baller. the custard was actually
> garlic flavored. The "hardboiled eggs" were actually blown out and filled
> with chocolate...except the one that was left raw. that kind of thing.
>
> The food was all very good, but the poor diners were all freaked out by the
> end becuase NOTHING tasted like what their eyes told them to expect. Some
> of our more curmugeonly members want us to do it again. Those of us newer
> folks want to play with period food, and we already have enough of an
> uphill battle convincing people that period is approachable and tasty and
> not wierd that we dont really want to go down that road....
>
> so I think you guys would fit in just fine....
>
> but the take home is just how imoprtant APPEARANCE is to food. What do
> people do in their banquets to make food appetizing?
>
> --AM
>
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