[Sca-cooks] Cooking contest

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Hmmm, based on various comments, i assume that many A&S competitions 
are open to all manner of stuff... the idea that a piece of 
embroidery and a piece of armor are in the same competition with a 
piece of pie...

Here in the West, our A&S competitions have specific themes and 
usually, although not always, a specific skill. Rarely to we get as 
general a topic as one coming up soon: Viking ornamentation (any 
technique). Usually there are more focused - (to be completely 
random, oh, say, 14th century woodworking).

Also, it seems to me our whole A&S system is much simpler than in 
many other kingdoms. We have one A and one S at each of our 6 Crowns 
and Investitures. Then we have our "A&S Tourney" which is basically a 
camping collegium - the main focus is classes and where there 
actually are about 6 A&S competitions (2 arts, 2 sciences, and 2 
performing arts). Often there are only one or two entries in any 
given competition.

We have a separate set of cooking competitions at every Kingdom event 
- our Wooden Spoon - so that food only competes with food. A total 
score is 30 points per judge (total possible 90) - 10 of those points 
is for *taste* - the other 20 divided among 4 items (i.e., 5 points 
each) - documentation, authenticity, scope/scale, and 
presentation/appearance.

However, while taste gets the largest number of points, food tends to 
fail or win on documentation. Two dishes can score rather similarly - 
or one can even be much tastier than another - and the one with the 
best docs wins. Previously there had to be a minimum of 3 entries in 
order to hold a competition. If there were only one or two, the 
judging didn't happen.

When i was Principality A&S minister, i would judge one or two. I 
think that if people put the effort into it, they deserved to get 
feedback. And we even allow a winner if one gets 66 out of 90 
possible points (judges can give extra points, too, if they think an 
entry deserves a bit more).

I continue to do this as Silver Spoon, and it is done at the Kingdom 
level in both A&S and Wooden Spoon, because our A&S and our cooking 
competitions often have so few entries.

We also have cooking competitions in our Principalities - Silver 
Spoon for the Mists, Copper Spoon for Cynagua, the Silver Ulu for 
Oertha.

I am curious about how A&S things operate in other places. A&S seems 
a rather minimal thing here abouts.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita