[Sca-cooks] What would you advise?

[Christina L Biles]

Rosine said:
>>We have a newly-arrived member of the barony who insists on eating
onboard. She doesn't consult with the cook beforehand (she and her husband
also eat as part of the "baronial mess" when we're camping)

My advice is to sit down and talk to her.  She needs to either put up or
shut up.

        I have a similar allergy to spinach.  At your typical SCA feast,
there are one to two dishes I can't eat and can't cook.  So, I don't.
There have been two feasts where I didn't check the menu beforehand, and
my choices for eating would have been bread, butter, and armored turnips,
and I acknowledged my idiocy in not checking beforehand and wandered off
to the local McDonalds.  Onions are more difficult, because they are such
a widespread product.  (My friend with a bean allergy eats offboard
because that is almost his only option...)   Nonetheless, that makes it
more her responsibility, not less.

        I believe in making accommodations for people with allergies.  If
I make one dish with onions, she should know which dish it is and avoid
it.  If I make 10 dishes with, and one without, I'm willing to make a
small amount of at least some of the other dishes without onions, IF I
know beforehand.  If invite her over for dinner, I won't use onions.  If I
(or anyone else) have a party or a gathering with munchies, her
responsibility is to bring a dish with no onions that she likes and is
willing to eat.  My responsibility to her as my guest is to make sure that
if I am making multiple dishes, one of them won't have onions.  It isn't
as much fun for her, but her right to swing her fist stops short of my
nose.

Hmmm...   Another way to put it.    The amount of accommodation she can
expect depends on the size of the group affected and her efforts to help
herself.  As my personal invited intimate guest, there will be no onions
cooked.   As a personally invited guest at a small party, there will
probably be munchies with onions, but they will be marked.  At a random
anyone in the group gathering, I will (if I know about her) make sure of
an onionless dish if I am making multiples.  It's her responsibility to
bring at least one dish she can eat, and to ask about the ones she didn't.
 Or to ask beforehand that dishes be marked, and skip the ones that
aren't.  When cooking for my group, I make sure to allow for the
vegetarian, the diabetic, the teetotallers, and the spinach, fish, bean
(etc) allergies, _as long as I know about them_.  That usually means
either a small pot with differences or an extra dish, not that I prevent
everyone else from enjoying whatever it is (even spinach).  At a feast, it
is entirely her responsibility to talk to the cook well beforehand to find
out what dishes have onions, and request options.

Decide how you feel about her behavior, and how you feel about what is a
reasonable level of accommodation.  Talk to her about it now, before it
has a chance to escalate.

-Magdalena