SC - Re: Worst Critique Ever

[Philippa Alderton]

Well, since you insist on publicizing private comments....

#############################

>First of all, this is my work e-mail. Please send any further responses to
>my home e-mail at LLEWMIKE at aol.com. That will make it much easier for >me
to
>post your comments to all the major websites.

That was where you emailed me from- that was where I responded to. If you
notice, I was careful to send the SCA-Cooks List response under a seperate
cover, so your work email wasn't widely published.

>Lady Phlip, SCA-cooks is the most widely read food discussion group >within
>the SCA and practically everyone I know is on it so don't try to say that
>only one or two people in the Middle subscribe.  The only reason I
>unsubscribed is because of the sheer volume of mail I was receiving but
>rest
>assured that I am back on and will be watching your critiques carefully.

Well, if they're on here, they certainly aren't posting. Hauviette, Jasmine
and I were the only ones posting, now you and Rivka are- and it will be a
while before she learns enough to have anything worthwhile to say.

>Your remarks were designed to do nothing but embarass.

Bull****. I'll admit to being a bit cranky because I was so disappointed,
but if my goal were to embarrass anybody, trust me, I could do it much more
adequately.

>Lady Phlip, again, you prove why people do not want you in their kitchen.

Funny- other than this inedible feast, I've had no problem finding folks who
make COMPETENT feasts having me in their kitchens. In fact, I've been lately
turning down requests for my presence.

>Who would want such a vicious individual in their kitchen? You are nice >to
>their face but skewer them in the back.  Your opinions on others peoples'
>kitchen are the subject of continuous humor as you haven't been in them
>and
>account for the fact that no one is willing to allow you to cook for them.

Bull**** again. I have no problem saying anything to anyone's face. I didn't
confront Ginny at RD because I knew she'd be exhausted- that wasn't the
time. I didn't post her privately because I don't have her addy in my
address book. By the time I got it again, I'd already posted the message.

As far as no one being willing for me to cook for them, see above. As far as
continuous humor- I wish the food I'd been served at that feast had been
something to laugh about, rather than feed to my dog. Maybe those in your
circle don't want me, but I've been working with the best, when I work.

>Further, as to waving laurel leaves around, I got them for a reason and it
>wasn't just cooking or politics as you seem to imply. I got them because I
>know how to tell people they have done something right or wrong in such >a
way that they don't stop trying to work in their art. Ask Andrew on the
>topic of proper criticism. I have made my share of huge mistakes and >won't
deny it but at least I kept trying. You seem to have absolutely no >concept
of what your comments do to people.

Can't stand the heat.....

You please explain to me why I, or anybody else should have to eat
unacceptable food. Ginny's a Laurel, as are you. You people have those bay
leaves because you're supposed to know what you're doing. I'm going to be a
lot harder on you than someone like Rivka, who doesn't yet understand what
period cooking is all about.

>Now, as the what you are doing right. You are getting a reputation for
>publicizing newly available works and for always being willing to answer
>questions regarding period food or to be able to point people in the right
>direction. You are also getting a reputation for being an expert in the
>husbandry and slaughtering of animals.  I am actually hoping you will
>write a TI article about this someday.

Actually, I'm working on a translation of a sauce book from the Latin.
Butchering and husbandry will take an awful lot more research and fining
down before it could make a decent article, given TI constraints.

>Further, as Adamantius challenged me last year and I demurred, you >find a
>group willing to allow you to cook a small feast of say 100 to 150,
>and I will help you assemble your staff. You need to have an actual taste
>of what
>it is like in the kitchen at an event before you attack someone in >this
>manner again or you leave yourself open to further criticism.

I've worked in the odd kitchen, and not just cutting veggies or washing
dishes, though I've cheerfully done that as needed. Are you aware of what I
did, helping Jasmine with the veal at Spring Coronation? I was very
disappointed with one of my contributions there- the Crown Roast I prepared
was served cold because, although it was at the point of perfection exactly
when requested, by the time the King got to the feast and finished farting
around, it was cold- it had been sitting waiting for almost 45 minutes. And,
the spicing was off- Jasmine forgot the spice packet she wanted on it, so I
had to improvise with the school spices. But, it was my responsibility, so
my fault.

Somehow, you have it in your head that I'm gratuitously nasty. I'm not, but
I've always been taught to strive for perfection in everything I do.
Unfortunately, what I'm seeing in the MK is people striving for tolerable,
and that just doesn't get it. If you strive for perfection, at worst, you
get merely good. If you strive for mediocrity, you get mediocrity at best-
awful, as in this feast, at worst.



Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous