[Sca-cooks] Knight Cooks

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach CorwynWdwd at aol.com:
>Okay... I've been through the Flory-thingie and not been able to dig it up
>sooo....
>
>Does anyone remember a thread awhile back about a Knight who was the head
>cook for a particular court who committed suicide when  the fish he ordered
>was late? I'd like to reference it.
>
>Corwyn

That was Vatel, chef officier to the brother of King Louis XIV. He
was some species of gentry, but I don't recall offhand if he was a
knight per se. His job was more F&B manager (with a little wedding
planner/party lady thrown in) than head cook. If you need it, I have
a text someplace of the letter by Madame de Sevigny, giving a
contemporary account of his death (one of the great cautionary tales
for SCA cooks and autocrats, extolling the glories of sacrificing all
for honor, but reminding one that not everyone gives a darn).

The movie with Gerard Depardieu was well done and pretty accurate, I gather.

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER