[Sca-cooks] Out of the food topic altogether rantAuthenticitypolice

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
> It *is* okay. To say it is *not* okay is to
> place some kind of illusory requirement or
> mandate on
> others.  There is no by-law which suggests that
> serving modern food at a society feast is
> prohibited.  If it's not *your* cup of tea,
> then don't go.  Let others enjoy their
> membership the
> way they see fit.  The attitude expressed in
> the above paragraph, I think you will find, is
> one of
> the root causes for people disliking
> 'Authenticity Police' to begin with.

I wasn't going to answer your post because
sometimes it seems as if with your rude behavior
you are deliberately trying to cause flame wars.

However, I am going to answer this comment with
the exact wording from Corpora, page 13, of the
July 2004 revision, which states:

"A. Society Events Defined
The term “Society event” refers to tournaments,
feasts, and other activities whereby participants
can display the results of their researches into
the culture and technology of the period in an
environment which evokes the atmosphere of the
pre-17th century European Middle Ages and
Renaissance."

While this is not a mandate, to serve spaghetti
or hamburgers or pizza at a public feast [what 
you do in the privacy of your own pavilion is 
not what I am talking about] goes against the
spirit of this paragraph and against the context
of the Society as a whole.  We are supposed
to be studying and recreating the Middle Ages and
Renaissance.  Our public banquets, our public
tournaments, our public coronations should be
our best attempts to recreate what our focus
interest was about.  I am not saying that they
should be absolutely perfect down to the last
flea.  I am saying they should attempt to do
so.  But to not do any research at all for a
public banquet is not attempting anything at all.
To allow a person to head a banquet who is
unprepared or unwilling to do research is going
against the spirit of our organization. 

> > You are doing your new cooks a great
> disservice
> > by not showing them how things should be
> done.
> > In the Middle Ages, the Master Cook took on
> > apprentices so that they would learn how to
> cook
> > and put on feasts for their employer. The
> Master
> > Cook would never allow a new apprentice to
> run a
> > feast without ever being given the
> foundational
> > knowledge that is needed to do so.
> 
> 
> Are you implying that anyone on this list, or
> any other SCA list, could be considered a
> 'Master
> Cook'??  

No.  You know that I am not.  This was an example
[You do know what examples are, don't you?]
of a teacher/student relationship and the
teacher's duties towards their students, nothing
else.

> There is not a single person here who
> has first hand experience in a medieval
> kitchen,
> serving a medieval feast or even cooking a
> medieval dish, for that matter.  We have
> speculation
> and guesswork as to how it was done, and some
> intuitive authors who offered up fairly clear
> instructions in their recipes.  Other than
> that, everyone here is just guessing.  Some may
> be
> pretty good guesses, but no one here has
> apprenticed under a medieval Master Cook.  If
> you think
> that these are not just guesses and
> gut-feelings, I direct your attention to the
> Cuskynole thread
> which can be found in Stefan's Florilegium...

I have said nothing like this and you know it.

I don't know if you are actually this dense or
just pretending to be dense to provoke a rise
out of me.  I am inclined to believe the latter
as you do this constantly, and you did this
constantly when you were known as Balthazar.

The whole jist of my previous message was to 
say that if a new cook is afraid of research
then we [yes all of us on this list] should
help the new cook by example and by being
this person's cooking mentor.  It is not good
to throw new person into a feast without giving
them guidance, like the example I used of
throwing a person into a pool and hoping that
they can or will learn how to swim.  This is 
_not_ the way a person should learn who to put on
a feast, in my opinion.

Huette



=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.


		
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