[Sca-cooks] Feastocrate vs. Head Cook

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 11:49 PM 12/13/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Noble Cousins!
>
>Greetings from Solveig! Why not simply use chef? Chef appears to be
>etymologically related to chief and capt = head. The Chef is the leader
>of cooks. I am currious as to when chef actually came into use. I
>agree that it may be quite recent and is only really descriptive in
>the context of restaurant culture which is itself quite recent.

IIRC 'chef' as in the head of the kitchen is very late- 18th-19th c for
that specific use.

>Autocrat (as opposed to its offspring) is a real word and is descriptive
>of the function.

But not medieval and not in this context.

>In medieval times, this job might be performed by a
>head butler of some sort.

In medieval times, there were a good many people who performed quite a few
roles.

The _Boke of Curtasye_ (Sloane MS 1986) counts amongst others: seneschal
(or steward), the Marshal of the Hall, butler, porter, usher, ewer,
pantler, almoner, server, carver, chandler, baker, controller, surveyor,
clerk of the kitchen, huntsman, avener, chamberlain, receiver, chancellor,
treasurer. They have a peculiar term for the cook. He is called: (drum
roll) the COOK. The other roles preformed by an SCA cook- budgeting and
accounts and such, are performed by the controller, surveyor, and the clerk
of the kitchen.

The butler is responsible for the drinks, knowing menus and making sure
there are appropriate serving dishes and utensil. He is responsible for the
laying of the table, and also of supervision of staff.

The closest role to that of the SCA 'autocrat' would be steward or
seneschal. And to differentiate from the officer, it is easy to call the
the Event Steward or the Steward of the Hall. These are reasonable and
supportable terms to use.

I frankly am tired of the '-ocrat' stuff. Autocrat. Feast-o-crat.
Tourney-crat. Merchantcrat. Gate-o-crat, Biff-o-crat. Small-o-crat. This is
ridiculous. Better: Event Steward. Head Cook or Kitchen Surveryor.
Marshall. Chancellor. Porter. Usher. Tutor or Nurse. it really needn't be
hard...

Being as how I recently worked on the issue...

'Lainie
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