[Sca-cooks] Cooking Guild ranking system?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Olwen wrote:
>  > I don't understand what you are saying about your cooks guild.  Can you
>  > explain it to me better?  It sounds like you folks compete for merit badges
>  > or something.

And Kiri responded:
>I don't think it's merit badges, Olwen, but rather a ranking system much as
>was part of the period guild system...Master, Journeyman, Apprentice.  When
>we had the Cooks' Guild in Caer Mear, we had those rankings...and specific
>things one had to do to attain each level.

Kiri, can you describe what sorts of things one needed to do for each level?

We have a Needleworkers Guild in our Kingdom with a similar system of
ranks. The ranks don't exist so folks who are higher can lord/lady it
over those below, they're just one way of encouraging people to
explore a range of different techniques (one does two different
techniques for each level), and people at higher levels mentor those
at lower levels.

With embroidery, people often get in ruts, doing the same stitch or
narrow range of stitches and/or style over and over. The Guild
provides a support system for people who want to learn historic
stitchery and expand their knowledge of historic techniques. And some
folks do period style stuff in non-period techniques - and while that
won't get them through the "ranks", we encourage them in their
efforts.

For some reason the West doesn't have big participation in the
various arts and sciences, including cooking, at Kingdom events (let
me reiterate again what i've already said before - our events are
mostly camping events). I mean, we have all sorts of knowledgeable
folks, people doing research and making stuff, people teaching,
people getting laureled for their excellent work, but sometimes the
A&S Ministers have to cancel competitions because there aren't 3
entries, the minimum required for a contest.

Anahita
who in almost 3 years in the SCA has only entered one A&S competition
(with a Persian style illumination) and not yet a cooking
competition, although maybe i'll cook something today for our
Principality Silver Spoon competition tomorrow (the dish has to be a
Soup), but i'm also making something for the Iron-Chef cook-off, so
maybe i won't...