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

[Patrick Levesque]

Most of his thread lies on differing pedagogical methods, into which I won't
get because actually, various methods can and do achieve similar results.
However, I'd like to clarify a few things.

The SCA makes a requirement that anybody attending an event for the first
time should wear a decent attempt at medieval garb. This of course leaves
the door open to various interpretations.

Personally, I believe it's the same thing with cooking. Anybody who's new at
cooking should make a decent attempt at recreating 'medieval-like' food.

I won't trust a whole feast on an untrained cook, obviously (both as a
slightly more experienced cook, and as baronial seneschal). The example I
had in mind earlier was our recent feast for the East Kingdom King and
Queen's Rapier Championship. There are two cooks in our groups who can
handle this kind of feast, lady Hawise and myself. There were also two new
individuals who displayed interest in cooking for events. Given our busy
event schedule this year, neither Hawise nor I could handle the feast on our
own. (I was already planning our Baronial Investiture - as period as I can
make it - for March 5. That, raising a family, full-time work, full-time
doctoral thesis and being seneschal didn't leave me enough time for another
feast so close to it). We therefore made a joint feast, including our two
untrained cooks. 

One of them, who was cooking for the very first time, set out to make meat
pastries. They were totally undocumented, made of chicken, carrots, apple
and spices in a pastry pocket. They did not feel blatantly out of period and
this was probably unnoticed by anyone except those who had previously
researched period foods.

The other had cooked small (30 persons) feasts before, without caring for
periodness at all. (The horrible episode of the Oreo-cookie pie springs to
mind... Don't ask...). We assigned him two dishes: a carrot salad from the
Romanian cookbook, and a generic losynge recipe. We didn't ask him to do the
research as we knew quite well he didn't have time to do so. He did work out
some palatable recipes from the instruction given to him (losynges were
good) and, as such, made a first step towards a more period-friendly
approach to sca cookery.

Hawise and I took care of the other dishes, which came from a motley
assortment of period sources.

The feasts thus included mostly period recipes (if not, in some cases,
thoroughly researched) but was not in any way a period feast, given the
various temporal and geographic provenance of the said dishes. Hence the
period-oid term.

Nonetheless, I believe it was a 'decent attempt' at recreating a medieval
atmosphere. 

In the circumstances, I also believe this to be more than acceptable as a
solution. We started to train two new cooks in large-feast kitchen logistic,
and since the entire feast was planned between the four of us, they got a
hint of what constitutes a (so-called) period feast. This is better than
letting them loose and eating Boeuf Bourguignon or Oreo-cookie pie. This is
also better than not eating at all.

Petru


On 08/02/05 14:53, "Huette von Ahrens" <ahrenshav at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> I have a problem with your message as you seem
> to think that it is okay to have a modern food
> banquet for a group that is supposed to be
> espousing historical research.
> 
> In my humble opinion, a new cook should not
> be cooking a whole banquet by his or her self.
> An experienced banquetting cook should be the
> head cook, while the new cook should be his/her
> helper.  The experienced cook should teach the
> new cook by setting example and by giving the
> new cook research assignments.  This way the
> new cook will understand that SCA banquets
> should be more about historical food and less
> about just shoving cooked food down the diners
> throats.
> 
> 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.  This is
> how your message comes across.  You are throwing
> your new cooks into the pool and expecting the
> to know how to swim.
> 
> If Wolfgang Puck joined the SCA tomorrow and
> asked to put on a banquet, would I let him do
> so without giving him guidance as to what kind
> of foods were used during SCA period?  No,
> absolutely not.  I would give him books to
> use and research and tell him to go read them
> and come back to me with his menu.  If he didn't
> want to do research, then I would give him a
> menu to work with.  If he didn't want to use
> that, then I would say to him, "I am sorry, but
> the whole point of our group is to study and
> research the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  If
> you aren't interested in doing that, why are
> you in this group?"
> 
> The problem with your statement "it's better to
> have period-oid food than no food at all" is
> that you will get stuck in the mode.  You have
> allowed your cooks to think that period-oid
> foods are okay and they won't progress because
> they have found their comfort zone.  I have
> watched whole baronies do this for years.  I
> have seen people move into those baronies with
> great knowledge and a desire to share it and
> then get shut out because "This is not the way
> we do things or like it."
> 
> In my opinion, it would be better not to have
> a banquet than to have one that doesn't even
> try to be as correct as possible.
> 
> Huette
> 
> 
> --- patrick.levesque at elf.mcgill.ca wrote:
> 
>> The thing that saddens me the most with the
>> so-called 'authenticity police' is
>> the facts that eventually, has as been
>> mentioned, it will only discourage
>> people from involving themselves further, for
>> fear of negative criticism.
>> 
>> We have few budding cooks over here, we're
>> tending to them very attentively, in
>> a way, but I am not forcing the authentic stuff
>> on them just yet... tackling on
>> a feast is such an ordeal to begin with,
>> newcomers should have some slack at
>> first to get used to the kitchen rhythm and
>> stuff...
>> 
>> I am helping them as much as I can when they do
>> decide to go in for period
>> dishes and stuff, and I offer possible
>> substitutions for blatantly non-period
>> dishes. But sometimes it's better to have
>> period-oid food than no food at all.
>> I personally will try as much as I can to
>> provide documented, period dishes
>> (when possible). But my standards are mine, and
>> I don't believe they have any
>> use if I force them on others. The only result
>> I'll get is, I'll be the only
>> one left to cook.
>> 
>> Petru