[Sca-cooks] Atenveldt cooking attitudes redux

[Michael Gunter]

>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."

LoL! I LIKE that!

>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.

The first job I was given was to take peeled carrots, cut
the ends off, slice them in half then cut the halves down
the length. The lady I replaced was taking one carrot, cut one
end, turned cut the other, then cut the piece in half then
carefully chopped down the length.

I grabbed a handful, evened the ends, cut them all, rotated and
repeated, cut them all in half then split them in just over half
the time it took her to do one. The two people peeling the carrots
couldn't keep up with me. One mentioned, "You've done something
like this before, haven't you?"

Um..once or twice.

But it was fun.
Later that night after I went in and helped with clean up Selene
walked in to get me home and found me cleaning the stove, as she's
seen me do so many times at home. She told me that for some reason
she expected to find me doing that.

And to show that I'm an all around knight guy, my happy conversation
with the foodies was interrupted so that I could go and do
court dancing with my lady.

I had to speak with the Prince earlier in the day about some fealty
issues and later as he processed out as the new King he glanced over
at me and told me I cleaned up well. I didn't understand his comment
until I realized that I was wearing a golden cotehardie with white
tights and my thigh-high boots (looking very much the Count guy) but
when we spoke earlier I had been wearing a very stained and icky
tunic with chicken water and carrot splotches all over it. Oops!

>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...

Speaking of which, I just saw a wonderful Italian cooking show
where the host easilly skinned a chicken while keeping the skin
in one piece. Then he ground the breasts with some cream, spices
and I think a bit of Parma ham to make a meatloaf and stuffed the
skin. He then showed probably six different ways the finished
product could be served. It looked very tasty and easy.

>Adamantius

Yers,

Gunthar

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