[Sca-cooks] Pro, Hobby, Lifestyle, Ideology....

[King's Taste Productions]

Wow, Adamantius, you seem to have struck a nerve - 33 messages in a couple
of hours!

For me, the hobby is the medieval research.  For the rest of it - I am a
cook, always have been.  I am many other things, and in my mind I see how
all of those things all tie together, especially with cooking.  It touches
so many aspects of life.  It is not a hobby in that respect. 

I faced a dilemma many years back.  I served a very intense 3-year
apprenticeship, complete with European chefs, misogyny, being a young yankee
white girl in a southern hotel kitchen, and did I mention being 21?
Graduating from that was one of the largest challenges in my life.  Some
time later, I was asked by a wonderful Laurel to consider taking an
apprentice belt from her.  I was completely torn.  I loved her and wanted to
pursue that path, but really didn't feel like I could serve an
apprenticeship in the SCA, basically a hobby, after serving one in the very
real world and successfully completing it.  I even broached the idea of
becoming a Journeyman in her household, which she wasn't comfortable with.
So we did not pursue it, although we remain good friends.  I was told by
another friend that was a Laurel that I was picking nits.  Perhaps.  But
even my mother, who knew little of the SCA and its inner workings, said:
"wouldn't that be taking a step back for you?"     

Exactly what defines the title 'Chef' is another side to this question that
I have struggled with.  As an apprentice, you call your superiors Chef, but
you are not.  You really can't be considered a Chef until you hold a job
that has that title, whether it be Sous Chef, Banquet, Pastry, Exec.,
whatever.  If you hold the position, you hold the title.  Once you leave the
position, do you retain the (now honorary) title?  After a number of years,
I think you tend to have enough titled jobs that it sticks, such as the
titles "Chief" or "Sir".  
There are professional certifications you can attain (mine expired) and
degrees you can earn, and those can entitle you as well.  Do the titles you
carry ever expire?  
I was professionally trained, and am working in the industry again as a Chef
Instructor (so I can legitimately be called "Chef Christy").  I worked my
very first Home and Design Show at the Viking Theatre doing cooking
demonstrations over the weekend.  It was fun, and I have pictures of me in
front of the 8 foot signs with my name on them: Sauteed Fish and Lime
Pistachio Butter with Chef Christy   :)  

Christianna