[Sca-cooks] Why a feastocrat might get picked over other

[morgana]

> On 12/11/2013 4:25 p.m., Stefan li Rous wrote:
>> 
>> How do other groups select who will be cooking the feast and the menu?
>> 
>> 
> 
> The event steward asks someone to cook.  This is repeated until someone says
> 'yes'.
> 
> The steward may make some modest requests of the cook (such as "I'd really
> like to have something Elizabethan" or "can we have white
> pies?")-- otherwise, the cook sets the menu.
> 
> Antonia

In our small barony, the reins of head cooks has passed through a limited number of hands over the years, but the process remains pretty much the same. The current people who are most interested in cooking and being head cooks kick some ideas around, and present one to the general populace informally (fighter practice, business meetings, etc) and if no one runs screaming from the idea, the cooks continue planning. At that point they (usually the official head cook and 2-3 other partners) have control of the menu as long as they don't go crazy with expensive ingredients. We don't expect to make money on this feast, and aim for breaking even.

We have one major feast annually in October, and the cookbook or culture for the next feast is usually chosen by January or February. We like to eat good period food, and the baronial elders know it takes time to test recipes, etc., so we encourage early decisions, and our newcomers don't know any different (G). We'd have more feasts, but we don't want to burn out our cooks.


Morgana yr Oerfa, retired head cook