[Sca-cooks] What kind of class would you attend?- site logistics

Raphaella DiContini raphaellad at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 6 10:26:27 PDT 2009


Greetings, 
    The site logistics absolutely effects the classes you can effectively have. If classes are part of a bigger non-food focused event, and weren't planned for when the site was chosen there may be little the event steward/ autocrat team can do to change it. There are lots of options to be considered though, and I've often found that with enough lead time almost anything can be worked around. 
    If at all possible, I really like to have the teaching space fit the needs of the class and in some cases a class may unfortunately need to be modified to accommodate the space available for it. If you can't have fires at all, logically you can't teach a hands on cooking over fire class. However you can give a lecture on those same recipes and techniques. 
    Last year we put together an entire weekend of classes, and fortunately we were able to get a great site for it- a girl scout camp. This allowed us to have 2 lecture tracks, and multiple hands on tracks going at the same time, some in modern kitchens, some cooking over fire in a fire pit, or shelter with fireplaces. We wouldn't have been able to have the wide variety and number of classed we did if the space hadn't allowed it. That said I've also done and helped with lots of cooking classes and demos that were at events where there were maybe one or two classes on cooking, and given a food lecture in an ithra setting as well which is much more formal and structured, and I think it's very worth while get as much good information (and good food) out there as possible to better reach a wider base of people. As for students being used as feast help- I think that can be a great way for people to comfortably get some experience, so long as they know what
 to expect and don't feel like they signed up for one things and assigned something else. One entire track on Saturday was actually feast preparation from kitchen cleanliness, and time management to actually serving a multi course dinner to all the attendees- and it was well received, but there was explanation in advance so the students knew that's what they were signing up for. 
   I just love seeing classes taught that reach people and spread the word that eating historically is not only delicious it is definitely attainable by all. Some that I've seen have the biggest impact are tourney cooking taught at events, and classes on what people can get from the store for potlucks or those with limited cooking confidence. 

In joyous service, 
Raffaella  
 

--- On Mon, 7/6/09, Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> wrote:

> From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] What kind of class would you attend?
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Date: Monday, July 6, 2009, 6:36 AM
> I think the sites limit the type of
> classes. Too often we end up having to do all
> the demo classes in the same kitchen as the feast cooks
> which means you get a small
> table shoved to the side. Or they place all the culinary
> classes including those with books,
> expensive limited edition books, in that same kitchen. (The
> librarian in me shuddered at that.)
> Or all the demo cookery classes are really just hands-on
> help for the feast. You might as well
> bring an apron and your knives and just plan to help cook
> the meal. Is that really a class?
> 
> What I really like are Ivan Day's two day classes. Enough
> time to really do something.
> Expensive and worthwhile.
> 
> Johnnae
> 
> Michael Gunter wrote:  So, what kind of class would
> you like to attend that is never or rarely taught?
> > Gunthar



      



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