[Sca-cooks] A Feast in the Time of Chaucer

[Johnna Holloway]

They seem to indicate that this banquet was served in a "courtyard
which occupied the centre of the public square adjoining the basilica"  
which was
known as the Piazza dell' Arengo. This was next to a reconstructed  
palace, complete
with tower and a loggia. Of course the one account seems to indicate  
they ate in a series
of "halls," no one hall being large enough. But of course there's also  
the suggestion in a footnote that Violante was served her wine by a  
server on horseback.

I have no idea where the kitchens would have been.
Cook mentions that the guests might have been seated in a loggia. see  
pages 63-64.
(Transactions - The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume  
21 contains
the Cook paper "The last months of Chaucer's earliest patron."

We have to remember that we are very lucky to have this menu at
all. How many hundreds of court accounts list the gifts and never  
mention
the food at all? Here we at least have an indication of the foods  
being served.
The accounts vary as to how many might have been served, so we don't
know the quantities, but we have an idea at least to the dishes.
It would be an interesting exercise to take this menu and use Baroness
Helewyse's translations from the early Italian cookery books to come  
up with possible recipes.

Some of the accounts indicate that Violante's uncle Amedeo VI, the  
Green Count of Savoy who had been  negotiating the marriage paid for  
this banquet. There might be some connections to Savoy, although  
Master Chiquart would be 15th century and not late 14th.

Johnnae

On Mar 27, 2010, at 11:17 AM, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

>
> On Mar 27, 2010, at 8:55 AM, Johnna wrote:
>
>> The gilding? I wonder if it has to do with the early courses 1-5  
>> being roast
>> courses that were then gilded.snipped.
>
> It may also be a logistical issue. I like to do feasts with a  
> sideboard, because I can put a course of cold dishes or ones that  
> will keep warm (such as big pots of pottages) on the side board in  
> the hour before the first course, prepare the first course and serve  
> it immediately, fresh and hot, with the amount of time it takes to  
> eat both the first _and_ second courses to prepare the third course,  
> which might otherwise have to be less labor-intensive.
> Is is possible these roasts were prepared in another kitchen and/or  
> somewhat in advance, leaving the main kitchen and crew available for  
> more "a la minute" preparations in the later courses? "Gilding"  
> covers a fair amount of ground, especially in translation...
>
> Adamantius