[Sca-cooks] RE: Hotel interested in period food

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Sudden Service #5:
>Hej!
>     This sounds great!  I did a demo for a convention at a hotel in NH
>several years ago & after talking to the chef for a couple of hours about
>period food he decided to serve New England Lobster boil (Lobster, potatoes,
>corn, ect.).
>     I like the Almond Tart from "Eating Shakespeare" (although I add a
>little more cinnamon & ginger than is called for & I use the Polander All
>Fruit instead of raspberry jam).
>Pax,
>Olaf of Trollhiemsfjord

Yeah, I kind of see your point. Much as it would thrill me for
Gunthar's sake, and for that of our game, to see period food done by
hotel food service, what I expect any consultant, professional or
otherwise, on period food will be up against is a strong concern for
cost, and an assumption on the part of the chef that his aesthetic
sense is more developed than anybody else's, and that this is in fact
more important than the historical aspects, even for a group of
consumers who are members of a group whose stated purpose involves
the study of history.

I'm not saying this'll be a washout. I hope it's a triumph. But
Gunthar? Maybe you should reserve about 10-15% of your emotional
involvement with the project, to kind of protect yourself if it turns
out like that FoodTV thing that happened here a year or so ago...

For those new to this list, this was a series which gave guests
writing in to the show their "dream meals", in this particular case a
medieval feast, and some SCAdians were involved in providing
ambience. It was, I'm told, a fine meal, but even after being given a
lot of period recipes, the chef essentially created his own menu
based to little or no extent on historical cuisines. At least not
ones from the SCA's period.

I guess I'm saying, expect the worst, hope for the best. Most things
end up somewhere in between.

Adamantius

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