[Sca-cooks] Atenveldt cooking attitudes redux

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Michael Gunter wrote:


> I spent a bit of time in the kitchen. Once again it
> was strange not being really known. I went in and asked
> if I could help, the kitchen master at the time said,
> "I don't know, can you do anything?" Thankfully someone
> in there knew me and told him, "This is Gunthar, he can
> do pretty much anything you need."  :-D

That's fun. I recall at an event in, I think, The Barony of Settmour Swamp, when I actually heard the following words spoken just as I was leaving the kitchen for court or some such, "Who _was_ that masked man?" Now, never having met Gunthar in person, I have this vision of Gary Cooper coming in and saying, "I heard you might need some help. I can chop some onions, I reckon, mebbe cook 'em, too."


I think, though, as a person who runs kitchens, it's not necessarily the best plan in the world to make a volunteer feel they need to justify your permission to be in your kitchen (assuming they're there to work) by asking them, "I dunno, what can you do?" I think what would work a little better is to come up with jobs that need to be done that represent a range of skill levels, and let the person choose the job they're most comfortable with. I've found that most of the time, people don't misrepresent their skills. As Sean Connery says in "The Untouchables", "Who would claim to be that, that was not?" Similarly, who, in their right mind, would ask for the chance to glove-debone a dozen capons, if they couldn't do it? Of course, there _are_ exceptions...



Adamantius

--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98