SC - 15th Century Italian feast...

[Christi Rigby]

Someone wrote (sorry deleted the name before I wrote it down)

>And speaking of Meridies and Announcing foods.  I had become very used to the
>Hall Stewart announcing the dishes as they were brought out.  And in flourish
>- mentioning a few ingredients.  As I have travelled I have found that other
>places do not do this.  I asked in one Kingdom about this and was told that
>"no one would shut up for this to be accomplished".   hmmmmmmm ......  I
>kinda like the announcements.

It used to be practice here to post ingredients of the dishes to the hall
so people could see what was in them in case of a food allergy, but sadly
that practice has seemed to die away.  Which is sad because I have
allergies to pumpkin and swede which if eaten at the beginning of a feast
will catch up to me well before the dancing and merriment.  Last time I
entered a kitchen to ask what was in a dish I got told to go away and stop
being difficult.  So I eat before I go to an event, unless I have a promise
to let me know what's in what. I also know a couple of people in the same
boat as me.  Announcements are definately a good thing.

Speaking of period food, I'm trying to put together a compendium of
articles on feast preparation and period food. I'm sort of hoping that such
a thing will make the job a bit easier for the Head Cooks at events,
especially if they are fairly new at the job.  Could anyone more wise in
these ways than I, who are willing to donate a little of their time and
write any such articles for this book, PLEASE contact me personally.
Previously published articles would be great too.  In fact any help would
be great.  I don't quite know where to start in this.  Pretty please with
sugar and chocolate sprinkles on top???
- -Katerine