[Sca-cooks] Pennsic Iron Chef Results

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> I'm not sure I see the difference in practical terms between a cook's
> competition set up by a bet and one set up without a bet?
>
> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
>
> Because the Master's reputation is what is now at stake if a wager is made,
> and he is the boss. Margarite

So you are postulating that because people lived in the middle ages they
didn't allow themselves pride and rivalry in their own work? Isn't that
the same mistake in reverse?  Certainly the manuscript sources contain
references demeaning the cooking suggestions of other authors, which would
indicate a certain pride and rivalry to me.

(One place to look for competitions and rivalry might be in the case of
guild-sponsored dinners for civic festivals: rivalry between guilds in the
cities apparently ran very high. I don't know if it went high enough for,
say, the Glovers, the Grocers and the Whitesmiths to arrange a formal
contest between their cooks, but it would be a place to look for extreme
competition all right.)

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."