[Sca-cooks] Can you help?

[Debra Hense]

I forgot to include the person's e-mail address, so if you can forward to me?  I will certainly see that it get's forwarded.   Perhaps Nanna?  would even know who this person is?  Thank you for any and all help.

Kateryn de Develyn

Subject: menu question from Sweden


Hello,

I stumbled upon your website because I was looking for recipes from the middle ages. I am the director of one of Sweden's oldest museums which opened as a museum in 1753. It was the site of a famous escape of our first king Gustav Vasa in 1520. The building is a timber building from ca. 1503. We have about 6,000 visitors a year and we are open to the public June, July, and August. For the past 40 years, admission tickets, coffee, candy and ice cream have been sold from a little hut on the front of the property.  Now we are building a new service building which is due to open June 1. We will be selling Swedish hand crafts, and all things will relate to the theme of the museum. We will also have a new kitchen to serve light lunch items. There will be seating space indoors for 5 - 7 people and outdoor space for 20 or so on a covered deck. It is a popular picnic spot nicely situated on a peninsula, so when the weather is good, people like to be outside. Some days we have a couple of hundred people, some days we only have 5 or 6 people who visit us. Most of our visitors are Swedish, although we get some foreign tour busses. Most have middle class budgets, but will spend a little bit more when they're on vacation. Many local people come just to have ice cream and sit on the lawn by the water. We have no license for alcohol. I have three guides for the summer who are college students, and will have one person (not yet hired) who will take care of the gift shop, tickets, and food. It will probably be a college student also. There is a restaurant program is the folk college here, so perhaps I can get someone with some experience. Most Swedes are aware of the old Swedish food traditions and feasts, many of which remain from Viking times. Our  timber house was originally used as a guest and "fest" building in the summer. One room has always been called the banquet hall, and during our guided tours we describe the banquet traditions of the manor.

Now comes the problem, as we hurry toward our opening, the menu is "sliding" toward hamburgers, hotdogs, and frozen pies. I am trying to hold a vision of the 1500-1700 time period against the demands of easier alternatives. The museum is owned by the State, and the summer tourism is run by our county government, so there is a lot of red tape. I'm probably asking an impossible question, but do you have any suggestions for something authentic, but still quick and easy, lunch items that can be prepared by someone inexperienced. Possibly even some things that could be consigned to a person off site and frozen?

Thank you so much.


Deborah Clemons