[Sca-cooks] A & S question

[nickiandme at att.net]

Background:  Calontir has 3 levels of recognition for A&S:  AoA level (Swans 
and Mallets), Grant level(Lilies and Hammers), and Patent (Laurel) level.

Our Queen's prize tourney is limited - those holding Grant and Patent level 
A&S awards cannot enter.  Instead, those holding these awards are asked to 
sponsor someone (or in many cases - several someones) into the competition.  
This competition is not really a competition.  It is instead, a mechanism to 
get feedback and encouragement those who are striving to improve their skills 
in one or more areas.  And perhaps most importantly, to get these people some 
recognition for their work. And I think maybe to encourage those of who do 
hold a higher award to keep pushing at our own boundries.  There is usually 
around a hundred entrants at this January event. (January in Calontir usually 
means snow and ice.)

Our Kingdom A&S competition is held during the summer (July).  There are two 
parts to this one.  The first is for the Kingdom A&S Champion.  These 
entrants must enter at three items - at least one in each category (Art or 
Science) with the third to be either category. They are judged at the 
advanced level of the A&S criteria for their entries.  The second part is the 
Tri-levels - which is for anyone no matter what their level - to enter and be 
judged at a level they choose.  (Novice, Intermediate or Advanced)  This 
year, if an entrant entered stunning stuff at novice level they could be 
bumped up another level or two (at the judges discretion) to be judged at the 
skill level their work actually represented. There were almost a hundred 
entrants at the event.  There were I think a dozen entrants for the 
Championship itself, and more than 80 entered into the tri-levels.

All judging is done face-to-face in both competitions.  This is helpful 
because the entrant can ask questions directly of the judges for 
clarification on a point. And the judges can explain why they are awarding or 
not awarding certain points on the criteria.  The judges can also give 
instruction on how the entrants can improve their score next time (this 
usually comes down to documention - we need more classes in how to write good 
effective documentation.)

I know I had the priviledge to judge one person's work whom I had judged the 
previous year and it was truly heartening to see that she had used every bit 
of our advice from the previous year on resources to use, and how to improve 
her documentation.  And her entry was much better also even without the 
documentation. She entered food - a course consisting of four dishes. And 
very tasty, very tasty indeed.  She used multiple translations to build her 
own interpretation of the recipes - she explained her substitutions in detail 
what she was hoping to duplicate with her subsitution, what changed as a 
result.  Wonderful - just wonderful.

Indeed this time it was very easy to award her full/high points for every 
criteria. 

I made the suggestion that she might want to try working with raw sugar 
instead of white or a local vintner's wine vinegar instead of the mass 
produced wine vinegars in the grocery store.  I believe I phrased it that she 
might want to try experimenting with those items just to check out the flavor 
differences that may result.

I of course am biased toward balsamic vinegars - the older the better.  A 
result of my one viewing of Jeff Smith's cooking show.  He opened a whole new 
world to me with that show on vinegars. I like my balsamic vinegar so aged 
and full of flavor that its like sipping aged brandy.

Kateryn