[Sca-cooks] listing of ingredients...

Nick Sasso grizly at mindspring.com
Sun Feb 25 15:44:31 PST 2007


-----Original Message-----
> > > > Listing all the ingredients before people need to make decisions
about
>attending the feast and event are important for health and safety reasons.
>Without complete info, potential feasters must assume the feast is unsafe
>for them and that they need to bring their own food or leave before feast.
>

Not true.  Feasters can check in advance with the cook.  If you contact
me before an event where I'm cooking and tell me that you're allergic to
X, I will either ensure that you will be able to have a good meal
without any X, or I will tell you I will be unable to cater for you.
This is _much_ easier for me to manage, and, in nearly all cases, I _am_
able to cater for people with allergies, medical restrictions, etc.

And I still want to be able to make use use what's available on the day
at least some of the time.  > > > > > > > >

The general trend in our part of Meridies, at least whehn I was kicking
around a few years ago . . . and those I worked with still do it . . . is to
prepare an ingredients list at least posted in the feast hall, and
preferable online when time and resources permit.  We also tend to prepare,
again when time and resurces permit, a booklet or stapled pages of our
recipes for the diners to take home (or add to their dossier about us).  For
the group of cooks I shared kitchens with, part of our goal was to peopagate
the materials for more cooks to prepare more dishes from real documentable
sources.  We know our particular redactions are not THE GOSPEL for those
dishes, but we give a starting point.  We included original text,
translation, and our worked out recipes (sometimes for 8, sometimes for
175).  )Processed or commercial preparations we tend to put the name of the
item and maintain the labels as has been suggested before.)

All that said, it truly is each cook's particular choice how they wish to
handle this matter.  As you are finding out, there is a group of cooks here
that find providing ingredients list and/or recipes to be synonymous with
hospitality.  Some find making themselves and their contact information that
same synonym.  Still other profess that one should just "trust" the cook and
not eat if one has food issues.  Lots of places on that continuum.  You've
got several perspectives to choose from and blend to make your particular
reputation.  For me, I get a particular, private thrill when I see a menu
presented that uses my redaction or a dish that just hasn't been done by
anyone else till I did it.  That sort of proud poppa thing . . . they
ususally do it better than mine, too ;o)

Some of my webpages can be found linked 	at
franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/menu_main.htm   Each feast I worked had an
ingredients list available for emailing and for posting at site.  I prepared
a handout of some sort with every recipe I used. When cooking for huge
numbers (over 100), I find that making "market choices" does not work for my
particular philosophy.  If doing a private meal for 30 or so . . . I take
that dive more frequently and advise the diners that I have an ADDITIONAL
dish to present so that they can still rely on what I told them.

I tend to shudder at what a Duke would tell me if he had approved a Feast
menu for St. Benedict's Day only to find I gypsy-switched the local young
lamb brewet with some inexpensive beef tongue I found in the market.  That
is just my impression, and the way I choose to play the game.  Your Mileage
May Vary.  CAVEAT:  if there is zero asparagus to be found, then I leave off
a dish and sub in another with many annoucements and postings as to the
switch.  It takes away the possibility of mistaking the new ingredients.
That sort of thing has happened to me . . . . never . . .. since I ten to
use seaonsal products.


pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco
(just one opinion amongst many)




More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list