[Sca-cooks] food likes and dislikes and ettiquette

Lisa ladyemp at sbcglobal.net
Thu Aug 27 16:31:44 PDT 2009


I do feel that this discussion is getting a bit emotional, but I also feel
that much of the issue is related to cultural differences.  My impression is
that to Judith, food is a labor of love and very much a part of her life and
culture.  For most of the rest of us, food is a way to satisfy an empty gut,
as much as we love the process of getting it to the table.  To my husband's
grandmother, who moved to the US from Sicily to marry his grandfather,
refusing to eat something she cooked was the greatest insult you could give
her.  To me, if you refuse to eat something I cooked, my attitude is "your
loss"...

We've actually discussed this subject many times in the past, just in
different versions.  Relating it to Period feasts at an SCA event, it is the
responsibility of the individual to contact the cook if there are any
dietary issues that may need to be addressed.  However, it is the
responsibility of the cook to make available an (at minimum tentative) menu
enough in advance that feastgoers can contact them regarding dietary issues.
I get really frustrated in our area and typically don't bother to attend
feasts at our local events.  The last 3 events I've attended where a feast
was served, the menu was posted a week before the event, one of them, the
DAY of the event.  In my opinion, that's not a timely posting to address
dietary problems.  The one that really cracked me up was an event where we
had crown presence, if the cook had bothered to go look on the webpage
regarding the crown's tastes, likes and dislikes, they'd have noticed that
the crown who was attending was allergic to onions... over half the items on
the menu posted 2 days before the event contained onions as a heavy
ingredient ie: Onion Sop, 3 dips with onions, etc.  I honestly don't know
how the feast turned out, as I did not attend the feast due to the multitude
of onions in everything on the menu, I just hope that someone called it to
the attention of the cook before the day of the feast, in hopes that the
crown was able to actually eat something at the feast.

Elizabeta




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