[Sca-cooks] My experience with the Savory Tosted Cheese contest

[ysabeau]

I was at this same Savoury Tosted Cheese competition and I know 
both Stefan and the lady running the competition. The competition 
was a private competition, not sponsored by the barony. 

The issue was more about the fact that Stefan did not follow 
the "rules" of the competition. If he wanted to do a demo, then 
that would have been fine. However, he placed it as an entry to 
the competition. I was standing there when the person running the 
contest saw his entry and was trying to figure out what was going 
on. I told her that Stefan has posted on this list that he was 
going to use a different recipe. She said that wasn't what the 
competition was about. The point of the competition was showing 
that a single recipe, when looked at with different eyes, could 
result in a wide variety of products. She wanted to show that 
there isn't necessarily only one way of doing something. At that 
point I headed off to the kitchen for cooking duties. 

I came back out a while later and Stefan was set up with his table 
at the end of the contest table. Space was tight and he was right 
between the musicians and the competition table. Unfortunately, 
one of the reasons for the empty spaces at the competition table 
was because I chickened out and didn't bring my concoction. I came 
up with two very different versions that were pretty good, but ran 
out of time to duplicate them for the competition. I tasted all of 
the renditions of the cheese and found them very good. 

I know the person who ran the competition fairly well. She's been 
in the SCA for decades. She is blunt and doesn't pull punches but 
is rarely rude without reason. I also know Stefan and can see 
where things went awry. It was just a matter of communication. I 
think if Stefan had approached her earlier and said he would like 
to demo a different recipe, she would have been amenable to it and 
actually would have enjoyed it. She is the type of person who is 
always trying to encourage people to think outside the box. 

>From her point of view, she had set up a competition and posted 
the rules months ago. Someone came along and blatantly disregarded 
the rules and didn't inform her of their intentions ahead of time. 
>From Stefan's POV, he feels like he got the bum rush because she 
didn't handle the surprise well. 

This wasn't the only case of miscommunication about intentions at 
the event that went awry. The Baron's Guard overreacted to 
some "players" that were trying to enter the hall in peasant 
persona to hawk goods and hold "chicken fighting" contests 
(stuffed chickens attached to remote controlled cars) to raise 
money. Neither the guard nor the event steward were informed ahead 
of time that a group of coarse peasants would invade the event and 
it was especially troublesome when "The woman who loved shiny 
things" (named by my daughter) tried to touch the Queen's crown. 
As it was discussed on the Bryn Gwlad list, communication of 
intent is paramount to avoiding confusion and hurt feelings on all 
sides.

As for the competition...wow! There was an Italian version with 
ricotta cheese and Italian herbs, the phyllo dough and chutney 
(which won judges favorite and was not necessarily required to be 
completely period), a version based on the meat ragout portion of 
the recipe, and the one that won (I'm horrible with names and I 
can't go back to look it up) for being best period redaction was 
delicious (darn cheesemakers making fresh cheese! ~grin~).  There 
were a couple of others but my memory fails me. Stefan's was 
delicious but definitely more of a Middle Eastern dish than a 
European. 

It was a fun competition that was intended to be fun and light-
hearted. It got me to experiment and I had fun doing it. 

Stefan, maybe you can sponsor a competition using your recipe next 
time. 

Sorry for such a long post.

Regards,
Lady Ysabeau of Prague
Barony of Bryn Gwlad, Ansteorra


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Reply-To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 09:35:20 -0500

>Bill Fisher wrote:
>
>>I wouldn't let it phase you too much.  It sounds like you 
intruded on 
>>someone's small domain that they wanted absolute control in and 
they
>>handled it in a less than civilized manner. 
>>
>
>Bingo! Beware the small person (not referring to physical 
stature) given 
>any kind of authority. The fact that she says she was 
personally "hurt" 
>because you broke a rule in a melted cheese contest is indicative 
of a 
>need for counseling.
>
>Christianna is right, the SCA does not have a lock on the market 
for 
>this kind of behavior. Once not longa ago, a facilites manager 
tried to 
>shut down a series of demos and presentations we were having for 
a 
>delegation from Taiwan because she had not gotten a *copy* of the 
form 
>reserving the space. She knew we had reserved it, since it was in 
the 
>system, but she did not get her copy (she was out sick the day we 
>registered, her boss had done the paperwork). The fact that she 
was 
>throwing a temper tantrum in front of a dozen university 
presidents and 
>deans from Tiawan as well as the Tiawanese Consul and two senior 
members 
>of our (US) State Department didn't seem to phase her a bit.
>
>Even the slightest challenge of someone like that's authority 
will 
>usually result in an outburst that can be charted on the Volcanic 
>Explosivity Index. Which may be why there were so few entries. 
They knew 
>her better than you did.
>
>Aoghann
>
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>
 

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