[Sca-cooks] Feast Ambience

[Jeff Gedney]

The last event I cooked for was heavily themed and the decorations were
extraordinary. There were large panels replicating castle walls, and
curtains and banners hung about the place.

Here is the site for the event but it does not do justice to the decoration,
but at least you can see the theme.

http://www.generalist.org/alejandra/june.html

She never updated it.

Brandu

>    -----Original Message-----
>    From: sca-cooks-admin at ansteorra.org
>    [mailto:sca-cooks-admin at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Mark Calderwood
>    Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 3:24 AM
>    To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>    Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Feast Ambience
>
>
>    --
>    [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
>    At 18:14 30/07/02 -0700, you wrote:
>    >In the meanwhile I was wondering if you do special things to
>    help with the
>    >ambience of your feasts- to go along with the wonderful food
>    and subtleties?
>
>    I've always found a theme helpful in giving some ambience to a
>    feast. This
>    can be as simple as "good food, good company", or specific to
>    a culture or
>    time period. Things like period menus, service and hall
>    decorations can add
>    immensely to the atmosphere of an event.
>
>    I'm a big believer in themed events, and have run them for
>    many years now,
>    ranging from stuff like an Imperial Byzantine feast, a Persian Caliph's
>    banquet and a caravan to the East, to a feast for Henry VIII and a high
>    chivalric banquet. (This year I am doing an Andalusian feast,
>    an Italian
>    festive banquet, and a grand 16th century Spanish feast at
>    Yule.) Themes
>    really help give a focus to your event, and provide a
>    framework to build on.
>
>    For example, the aforementioned Andalusian feast. This was originally
>    scheduled for Twelfth Night but was delayed by bushfire; on
>    the up side, it
>    gave me more time to research and plan! I have long been interested in
>    Islamic culture and civilisation, but had never done much on
>    al-Andalus, so
>    it seemed a good choice, and as far as I know an Andalusian
>    feast has never
>    been done in Lochac before. Once I had a general idea I had to
>    narrow it
>    down, and given that the surviving cooking manuscripts date to the 13th
>    century, a feast from the court of Cordoba, in the style of
>    the courtier
>    Ziryab, seemed logical.
>
>    As with every feast, the food is the backbone. The menu is drawn mostly
>    from the Manuscrito Anonimo, with some dishes taken from other
>    influential
>    Islamic cookbooks such as al-Baghdadi and al-Warraq. (I've done my own
>    redactions for all the recipes). I''ve also looked at the
>    period order of
>    service talked about in the Anonimo, and the method of serving
>    introduced
>    by Ziryab: "that the separate dishes be placed on each table before the
>    diners, one after another; and by my life, this is more beautiful than
>    putting an uneaten mound all on the table, and it is more elegant,
>    better-bred, and modern; this has been the practice of the people of
>    al-Andalus and the West...from the days of 'Umar b. 'Abd
>    al-'Aziz...to the
>    present". To supplement these sources I'm researched period ways of
>    colouring and decorating the food,  presentation being of
>    great importance
>    in Islamic Spain. To serve the food I'm hiring beautiful replica period
>    serving dishes made by a local potter, of a style used from
>    Byzantium to
>    al-Andalus and decorated with bird and animals with a deep green glaze,
>    they really rock.
>
>    Decorating the hall is also important. The tables have runners
>    printed with
>    Arabic calligraphy, and I have a variety of Islamic banners and wall
>    hangings which will be suitable, set off by garlands of
>    greenery and citrus
>    fruits (which will also make the place smell nice). Of course,
>    there will
>    be incense burning, some genuine frankincense resin from Oman
>    (and probably
>    sage to stimulate the appetite). I'm planning to have a "lei
>    girl" to greet
>    guests with a waft of incense when they arrive, in the
>    traditional manner.
>    Instead of candles, we'll be using oil lamps and mosque lamp
>    chandeliers,
>    which cast a nice suffused golden light, which does wonders
>    for the atmosphere.
>
>    Entertainment and diversion is also something to think about- I have
>    arranged for an "old desert storyteller" to circulate among
>    the tables  and
>    tell period jokes and stories, and for a performer in
>    authentic dance (not
>    modern bellydance). The "muezzin" (herald) will announce each
>    dish with a
>    short piece of background to the time and culture the feast is
>    portraying,
>    to educate the guests. Get the guests involved too, as they
>    arrive everyone
>    will be given a slip of paper with a period joke, poem, song or story,
>    which they will be encouraged to read (also makes a good
>    souvenir of the
>    event). This could even turn into a "paper-chase" game, with people
>    collecting parts of a story. Period games like backgammon and satranj
>    (chess) are also appropriate as popular period pastimes. Guest are also
>    encouraged to dress in Andalusian, Near Eastern or early
>    period garb, and
>    ladies are encouraged to wear veils, to further add to the
>    ambience. There
>    will be prizes given to encourage people to participate.
>
>    A lot of work? Yes. Worth it? Unquestionably. (And I hope the
>    Lochac folk
>    on this list will be there!)
>
>    Anyway, didn't mean for this to sound like an infomercial...
>
>    Giles
>    --
>
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