[Sca-cooks] Local Feast Disappointment

[Beth Harper]

I've been watching this thread develop, and I'd like to offer a little bit
of a different perspective... maybe a more hopeful one.

I've been on the fringes of SCA cooking for almost fifteen years, but
really only active in it for about five. I think that a desire for
authenticity and scholarship is growing, not lessening. It may be a cyclic
thing that I haven't been around long enough to see the full cycle of, and
it's certainly a thing that varies from place to place, but period food
research, in the Outlands at least, is just FLOURISHING.

The bar of entry is lower than it's ever been - there's really no excuse
anymore (other than flat-out lack of desire, which is at the heart of what
Urtatim is objecting to in the original post) to NOT cook a (marginally, at
least) period feast or potluck dish. I teach an intro to recipe redacting
class and an intro to cooking manuscripts class that are both based
entirely on manuscripts that are readily available, on the Internet, in
English translation, for free, and those classes are very well-received and
a ton of fun. And with the lower bar of entry, there are more people
willing to at least try - to start - and that means more people who will
continue on to do higher-level research and presentation over time.

And there's a trend in popular culture, more broadly, toward "foodie-ness"
- paying more attention to quality and sources of food, novelty, affordable
access to more varied ingredients. I live in the back of nowhere and I can
get ingredients I used to have a hard time finding in a major metropolitan
area. People are more willing to try unfamiliar things. I think that's one
of the factors making it easier for cooks to get event stewards onboard
with the idea of delivering higher-authenticity feasts. (This is not
speculation; I've had conversations with several cooks who have had this
very experience over time. I've been lucky; the event steward I'm teamed
with has been absolutely committed to supporting my research and period
cooking endeavors from the beginning of our working relationship.) It's
definitely encouraging people to be more daring with cooking entries in A&S
competition.

I think that what's happening is not that there's less desire for
authenticity, but that what I think of as the "LARP/reenactment divide" in
the SCA as a whole, and in the food community particularly is just really
visible, and really contentious, at this point in time. It's unfortunate
when ugly things get said across that divide, because the SCA has always
had room for both. For myself, I'd like to see the trend arc toward greater
attention to research, greater sophistication and authenticity, and it's
encouraging to me to see, not just amazing teachers and leaders (yes, Gwen
Cat and Aldyth, I'm looking at you) but especially lots of other talented,
passionate up-and-coming cooks who seem to feel the same way. They are out
there, really!

In service,

Liepa Jonaite
Outlands


On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> wrote:

> I often wonder about how Facebook will impact the research of various SCA
> activities. If everyone resorts to Facebook for their answers and these
> answers are brief or incomplete, what will happen
> to the value placed on original research or have those days already
> passed? Does it matter how much of an educational organization we are if
> Facebook is good enough and the default research resource?
>
> We've already seen members demand online sources only. Books and articles
> are too much trouble.
> Suggesting someone buy a book is an undue burden or that they consult
> something in a library---  well that just means
> that you are saying their research is suspect, Too many A&S activities are
> all encompassing meaning all research is now an opinion and everyone's
> opinion is equally valid. We even applaud this because we encourage the
> effort (numbers of participants, projects, items made, etc) and do not
> examine the results. (This means that someone can state that 1086 is the
> date of Hastings and that's perfectly ok. Their research is as valid as
> someone who holds to the 'old fashioned' view that it was 1066. Dare anyone
> suggest the former read a book or investigate and well one is told one is
> being disagreeable, impolite and toxic to the concept that everyone is
> welcome!  In fact many of these lists forbid disagreements, so one can't
> even correct the inaccuracies because one is just being disagreeable in
> pointing out the 'so called' errors. Librarians are not welcome!)
>
> There's also an idea going around that all you need to do a medieval feast
> or write a medieval cookbook is to just yahoo the word medieval and cooking
> or name of dish. You don't have to read an actual historical cookbook or
> look at historical recipes or historical accounts, it's perfectly ok to
> just enter a couple of words and trust the web.
>
> Will we continue to see authentic or attempts at authentic foods or
> dishes? Will any make the effort? And if the inauthentic is recognized and
> praised and rewarded with awards and titles, well
> why bother researching  or serving anything other than modern dishes?
>
> The question might be: Why can't we search for authentic and edible and
> reward those people who do?
>
> Johnnae
>
> >
> >> -------- Original Message --------
> >> From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
> >> Date: Wed, November 06, 2013 8:53 pm
> >>
> >> Recently the menu for a popular local feast was posted on FB.snipped
> >> I posted a link to Dame Alys Katherine's 1996 article, "Of Course, It's
> 'Course' or Remove 'Remove' " - SRSLY folks, 17 years have passed! Don't we
> learn anything? The cook replied that she had seen me post the link before,
> she'd read the article, they were still "removes", and she uses electricity
> and flush toilets. I can't find the post, or i'd quote it; perhaps someone
> suggested she delete it. I certainly intended NOT to reply.
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
>