SC - Emeril on medieval cooking

[Morgan Cain]

I know that a number of Kingdom lists (Calontir and EK) have been hashing
over this show.  (No pun intended.)  On CaloNet, one woman announced that
she was putting Emeril in for a "simple AoA" because she felt that he had
done quite a lot towards bringing medieval cooking to the masses.  *sigh*
She also took GREAT issue with the fact that anybody said anything negative
about the show, apparently not seeing it for the entertainment that Emeril
is.  I don't think anybody said anything differently than they would about
any other historical movie or show out for discussion ("Gladiator" was still
being gone over when this arose) but it was pure Emeril and Medieval Times,
including sparkling fabric in the costumes so they show up better under the
kleig lights.

The www.FoodTV.com webpage has three of the recipes he used listed.  The
Pottage comes from Platina (he uses a redaction) while the bread and tarte
are not credited to period sources.  In fact, aren't "Maids of Honor" tarts
at least 17th or 18th Century, possibly Victorian?

I noticed that although Medieval Times claims that nobody had eating
utensils in the Middle Ages, and Emeril repeated this (even concerning
bread -- apparently they did not have cooling counters, either?) on the show
everybody seemed to have plenty of forks and spoons.  The good and bad guys
are chosen in the course of an equestrian show that preceded the combat,
BTW, but the rest of the description is fairly accurate.  Medieval Times
uses live steel (GREAT sparks!) and the owner apparently loves combat and
has researched it thoroughly, so those are fairly accurate except that
nobody is cut or dies.  He really doesn't care about anything else, which is
why it shows.  And, I am told, he detests the SCA to the point of barring
his workers from belonging to the Society.

                                    ---= Morgan