[Sca-cooks] Re: Re: food pictures from MK Spring Coronation 2006

[Gaylin Walli]

Muiriath asked:

> Very nice. I am jealous :)  Just out of curiosity, what type of  
> budget did you have? And what was the feast cost?
> Love the little "trees"

:) thanks. The budget was originally 700$US dollars to feed 120  
feasters. That money did not include any food for head table nor any  
food for the feast staff itself (which is quite a common expense in  
our feast budgets in Michigan). That total was upped to ~1050$US when  
another group volunteered tents for the out of doors areas that would  
have required tent rental fees. As of a few moments ago, we totaled  
the feast out and we were at a little under 1000$ spent. Normally we  
go way under budget for these, so it's little distressing to know we  
came so close.

But it was pretty... and there were members of the professional press  
there too, so we were trying in some regards to impress them. When I  
get links to those articles or associated information, I'll post it  
here for people. One was the local (Kalamazoo, MI) paper, the article  
for which will appear on Monday or Tuesday of next week. The other  
biggie was a Chicago-based ritzy magazine that I'm still trying to  
find out the name of...Both sent photographers to the site. The  
Chicago rag took more food pics, IIRC. So I suspect the local paper  
will cover more about the SCA in general.

Papa Gunther wrote:

> Wow....just...wow....I mean, like...wow.
>
> Gunthar
> we'renotworthywe'renotworthwe'renotworthy

I hope we have more pics of more of the dishes soon. You're really  
only seeing a sampling of them. You're not seeing the lamb or the  
chicken plated. Or the Ottoman seating (floor seating) we had set up  
for those who wished it. Killer staff on that feast. We couldn't have  
done it without them. Really.

Anne-Marie wrote:

> we're pretty fortunate around here. its standard practice here to  
> get some artsy
> decorative types as "team garnish". hand them a bunch of raw  
> ingredients, edible
> flowers etc and have them spend the day making foofy chic chic  
> stuff. it really
> adds a lot to the food, especially with some of those super tasty  
> brown glops that
> are so prevalent in medieval western european cuisine :)

Yes I agree, it does improve the look. The two people most  
responsible for the end look of most of the dishes were TH Baroness  
Narissa of Roaring Wastes and my apprentice, Sgt. Renaude de Lunay  
(for those of you in the area who were curious). They were cackling  
gleefully as they lassoed people in from the rest of the event to  
help. "Hey, do you need any help?" was the common question and those  
two snagged them and had them cutting out fruit flowers and forming  
marzipan peaches before I could find something for them to do. :)

And concerning the soteltie trees she asked:

> what are the supports?

The base is a common clay flower pot, cleaned and filled with quick- 
crete. The base "wood" branches for the trees were a combination of  
pipe cleaners and florists wire, with cotton bandages. All of which  
was sprayed with gold spray paint and a sealant coat to make it safe  
for touching food. I'm not sure what brands of any of these were  
because I was not in charge of making them, but if it's important, I  
can find out.

> what are the fruits and leaves made of?
> how were they colored? how did you attatch them?

The green leaves were made from minted sugar plate. The hanging  
fruits were made from marzipan. Both were colored using edible food  
coloring from a cake supply store, but as I wasn't told what the  
brand names were. Gold dusting powder was used on the peaches, and  
graters were used for texture on all the fruits that required any  
kind of dimpling (oranges and lemons, I believe). The brownish orange  
bits are actually fruit "leather" rolled into rose shapes. All the  
fruit was attached to the tree branches using florists wire.

At the feast itself, we didn't have enough trees for every table, so  
our servers circulated the room with them on constant display and let  
people pluck the fruit directly from the tree. As a side note, while  
we were waiting to serve these, they were sitting in the basement of  
the church where we were prepping the rest of the food. It got so hot  
that we had to set up pans of ice in front of fans to blow on the  
fruits so that they wouldn't melt off the trees. We would almost have  
been better off carrying them upstairs to the feast hall ahead of  
time or even outside, given that the fruit was "ripening" before our  
eyes.

> when were tehy made?

The trees themselves were made several years ago for a feast of  
illusions that was prepared in Windsor, ON, Canada. We kept them  
around and used them again for this feast. The fruit was assembled on  
site, the morning of the actual feast.

> what inspired you?

The fruit references in most of the middle-eastern cookbooks were the  
biggest reference point we had, plus the vivid color of the  
manuscript pages from which we were taking our lead on many things  
concerning the settings and presentation. In addition, there's a  
great deal of reference to the magnitude of the sugar creations  
during the courts we were attempting to echo, and if I find some  
time, I'd be happy to ship some of that reference material off to you  
once I dig out from under all the feast notes.

Hope this helps,

iasmin