[Sca-cooks] Cook's Symposium 2004 - Ideas to Comment On

[Harris Mark.S-rsve60]

Baroness Iasmin asked for comments on:
 
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Lending Library - We've found that finding and sharing sources on various cooking topics presents a real challenge to the beginning cook. To make information more readily available to our researching brethren, we're toying with the idea of making a number of texts available near a photocopier so that people can copy the relevant sections they need to complete the research they're most interested in. Some of the sources may be books, others papers we've collected over the years, and some may be feast write-ups that we've found particularly useful. Would you find this kind of availability of information useful?
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I've seen these pop up at more and more events lately, including the multiple day AAA (Ansteorran Argent Anniversary) event this past weekend. I will admit that I usually saw several people in the library area when I went past it. However, personally, I've never found these libaries to be that useful as there are usually so many other things to do, that finding time to do something at an event which I can also do at home keeps me from doing the other things. For a specialized topic such as this though, I might rummage through looking for interesting books or papers to get copies of in the future. Along this line, perhaps some good bibliographies or some listings of available resources might be good things to have available, especially for the beginning cooks.

If you do come up with some interesting papers or feast write-ups that folks find useful, I would love to consider them for the Florilegium provided I can get permission from the authors. This might make them available to those who don't have the time to look through them at the event or who live a long distance away and cannot attend.

Also, I would try to make sure all these books and items are marked with the owners names before they are set out. Perhaps providing some stick-on labels for those that might not want to write directly on their items.

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Spice/Herb/Supply Delivery - Because not everyone can get to Pennsic, we're also toying with the idea of taking Pennsic pre-orders for those spices that they Pepperer's Guild sells. The idea would be for us to take prepayment on those items you need and have us do the shopping for you at Pennsic because you can't make it. We'd then have those pre-paid orders available at the Cook's Symposium for you to pick up. 
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I'm not sure what the advantage of this is over doing a direct mail order from the Pepperer's Guild. Since it is pre-ordered though, there should be minimal financial risk. It is perhaps riskier, but having some of the more unusual spices on hand for folks to buy might be a good way to introduce folks to these spices. You might have some of the beginning cooks make impulse buys after finding out what they can do with these in the classes as the Symposium. Even for the folks who don't buy, it could be an educatinal experience. Again, there is some risk involved. If you can actually get the Pepperer's Guild to show up, that will decrease the risk or at least shift it. But they can simply take unsold stuff back and sell it later. If you can get them to show up with their large glass jars of spices and their balance scale and such, it could really add to the atmosphere of your event. Especially if the surrounding mundanity could be reduced. I don't know whether you are doing thi!
 s event in the middle of a hotel or just where.

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We could also make available a limited supply of other items from the stores we have available to us. Things like dried herbs, candied seeds, rose water, orange flower water, verijus, and like items could all be considered. We even know of some commercially availabel marzipan if people would be interested. If we were to consider this pre-paid delivery service, what would you be most interested in? Would you find it useful?
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Again, some risk here, although pre-orders and using the pre-orders to judge the popularity of additional stock would help. Perhaps there are some merchants other than the Pepperer's Guild who might also be encouraged to come and handle these items. I'd be interested in the candied seeds if they weren't the usual I see (fennel?) and perhaps the verjus, although I still have a bottle somewhere from the Pepperer's Guild. Again, these could be a nice educational addition and some beginning cooks might buy them if they were suddenly available.

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Road Trips/Guided Tours - In the middle of winter, the idea of further road travel might be a little daunting. But there are a few local businesses to the event site that might be of use to cooks and researchers. Would you be interested in leaving the site to see these places or do you typically spend most of your time on site?
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I remember some side trips like this being done for the KW heraldic symposium. I think these would work best for the out-of-town folks who might arrive the day before or perhaps the last day as things are closing down. Because of the weather this is something that might need a backup or some warnings that it might not happen.

Stefan