[Sca-cooks] To Garnish and Present Med/Ren Food

[Volker Bach]

Am Donnerstag, 19. Mai 2005 19:46 schrieb lilinah at earthlink.net:

> >Sheesh. Next we'll be judging the typeface and paper quality on research
> >essays...
>
> Hmmm, now there's an idea...
>
> (Actually we request that people NOT enter documentation printed in
> "period" style fonts or calligraphed, so that the judges can read
> them more easily.)

Well, actually some do. I entered a translation of a period cookbook and a 
mustard recipe once. The mustard won. The cookbook finished last. the mustard 
took me some 60 minutes from reading the recipe to trying it on ham. THe 
cookbook took weeks. I webbed it, I've had great responses, but you know 
what? A judge wrote me a note saying she didn't like the fact it was in ASCII 
and had notes and alternative renderings in it. It was instead suggested I 
prettify it, make a layout of the recipes in a peri-oid typeface with the 
translations opposite. This is just wrong. It would not have changed anything 
about the contewnts, except where I would leave out the 'jarring' parentheses 
- and that would diminish it. 

Back then I was young and foolish and thought this was my mistake. Later I 
realised it was the judges'. It took me much longer to figure out the fault 
lies with the format of competition. Sorry, I do have strong opinion on these 
things. 


> May i forward your message to the west-cooks list?

Sure. I'm on a personal crusade here :)

> I want to change the judging sheets. Currently, here's how our
> Judging sheets break down:
> Documentation - 5
> Authenticity - 5
> Appearance - 5
> Presentation - 5
> Taste - 10
>
> Most of us participating in the discussion on our local list think it
> would be ok to roll Appearance and Presentation into one 5 point
> category. We are debating whether to add another 5 point category to
> keep four of them, and if so, what. "Suitability to Theme" has been
> suggested, as has "Difficulty".
>
> The Kingdom of the West Wooden Spoon, Principality of the Mists
> Silver Spoon, and Principality of Cynagua Copper Spoon use the same
> format, so if we change ours, we intend to coordinate with Cynagua
> and the Kingdom. I'm afraid i don't know about our other
> Principality, Oertha (Alaska), but i welcome hearing what Oerthans
> think on this topic.
>
> So, what's on cooking competition judging sheets in other places? How
> different are they from ours?

Drachenwald uses (for single dish entries)

Documentation: 30 points (0-10 x 3)

Authenticity: 20 points (0-10 x 2)

Complexity: 10 points (0-10 x 1)

Workmanship: 30 points (0-10 x 3)
(with sub-points appearance, aroma, flavour and texture, except they mis-spell 
flavour)

Aesthetic Value: 10 points (0-10 x 1)

It is expressly noted extra points can be awarded for presentation. 

It's OK in terms of weighting as far as I'm concerned. I just wish we didn't 
do this.

Giano