[Sca-cooks] Rant: And speaking of cooking equipment...

[Ron Carnegie]

I don't take offense.  I am a historical interpreter for a living, but I am 
not offended when I am reenacting on weekends (it is also my hobby).  It is 
my profession as well as my hobby.

Ranald de Balinhard
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Gunter" <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Rant: And speaking of cooking equipment...


>>     Sorry once you made your living in any field of craftmanship.Being
>>referred to as a hobbyist is personally down grading at best.
>
> I really think it depends on your viewpoint. I have made my living
> cooking for people. If I still did that by working as a chef,
> catering, writing books, or even if I spent most of my working career
> as one of these then maybe I would still consider myself a professional.
> But I don't get any money for my cookery anymore. I can have a
> professional attitude about my cooking and teach classes and all of that
> but now I'm a hobbyist.
>
> I also think what Master Adamantius was partially ranting about is the
> fact that cooking shouldn't be an "expensive hobby". With decent gear
> that lasts a while you should be able to make pretty much any dish in
> a professional manner. $400 stock pots are the results of the industry
> taking advantage of these new enthusiastic real hobbyists thinking they
> have to have the very best of everything in order to justify their lack of
> real world experience.
>
> My great-grandmother's 150 year old skillet/dutch oven combo cooks
> better than the best All-Clad. Lodge gear, when properly seasoned, is
> about the best cooking stuff you can find and is very cheap. Of course
> I would love to have a set of Le Cruset or All-Clad because it DOES cook
> well. I'm also looking to spend far too much money on a very nice chef's
> knife. But I don't have to have the very best and latest titanium/copper/
> diamond encrusted cookware that Rachel Ray is schilling for me to consider
> myself a cook.
>
> I think that may have been a part of Master A's rant that we overlooked.
>
>>  I would hesitate to add some one out there among your friends in the
>>feast
>>hall is paying for it. So does that make feast a hobby or professional
>>situation ?or maybe some where in between?
>
> But I don't make money when I cook a feast, in fact, I often spend a
> bit of my own cash. They may pay to cover expenses and maybe benefit
> the group hosting the feast. But I get nothing out of it other than the
> satisfaction of using my art to make people happy.
>
> Therefore, I'm still a hobbyist who shares with 100 - 500 of my closest
> friends.
>
>>  Cealian
>
> Gunthar
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> The average US Credit Score is 675. The cost to see yours: $0 by Experian.
> http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=660600&bcd=EMAILFOOTERAVERAGE
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org