SC - Re: First feasts

[grizly@mindspring.com]

>hey all from Anne-Marie...
>Adamantius sez:
>I would advise any one of the no people who have asked for my advice on
> >this subject, to concentrate on meeting and exceeding your own best
> >standards, and not worry about what others do, least of all the judges.

>
>I've decided that you need to decide what your goal is. If your goal is to
>win, that's certainly fine,
>
>I'm much happier having the measure of my success come from within me.


My goal is visibility.   There's a lot of people out there, and in person 
I'm not very outgoing or skilled at getting to know people.   A competition 
(or a potluck, or a generous picnic basket) is an easy way for people to 
meet and remember me---"Oh, you're the lady that made the _item___ at  
__event___.    Yum!"

I usually don't set out on a new goal because of a competition, rather, I am 
happy when something I am currently reading about comes up as a competition, 
and use  the competition as an deadline to work toward.   I often don't 
finish in time, so it's a good thing I'm having fun anyway!

As for judging, at general display-type competitions, if enough info and 
documentation is around to get me started, I'll happily leave reams of 
questions.  Disappointing when someone barely says anything and the only 
question you can ask is 'documentation please?' which so many people take as 
some sort of insult.

I don't like judging specific contests using the official judging forms.  
Usually not enough entries to make a serious differentiation, and at least 
half of them will be extremely questionable on one or more points, and too 
often, the only info I have is that provided by the best documentation on 
the table.  Which is not always so good.

Don't you hate when the documentation is better than the product?  I judged 
a cordial competition in which one entrant provided bookmarks in what 
appeared to be a good source.  Flipping through the bookmarks, I found 
multiple recipes involving wine and specific lists of spices, but she had 
soaked completely different spices in vodka.   And the only other competitor 
provided no documentation nor even his own ingredient lists, so guess who 
won?

Bonne
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