Cooking
I enjoy cooking and SCA cooking is something different again. Usually it is large scale and usually it is an art in itself to come up with a reasonable menu - that is period and covers all the requirements of all the attendees. Think - vegetarians, wheat allergies, dairy allergies and the dreaded nut allergy. The French feast I worked on for one of the Here Be Dragons weekends was christened the Almond feast so you get the idea!
Below are some of the feasts I have prepared. I must acknowledge a lot of great input from several of the other local cooks - stearing me towards balance for all to eat and ensuring that I keep well within the bounds of authenticity. They are wonderful and I now know a lot more than I did then!
NOTE: All the recipes are my notes which may or may not provide sufficient information for replication. They are provided as a guide to what was intended to be (and mostly was) served.
Shire Birthday 2007
Cuisine: Dutch
Comments: This was a smallish event this year however in the past it has been quite
large so you never know. The cooking was done as a team with all the cooks in the cooks
guild taking part and being responsible for specific dishes for the night. This meant
that no single person was in the kitchen all night long. This resulted in it not being
that much work for me as head cook aside from generic wrangling which was quite revolutionary.
It is also important to note that the entire menu was a joint effort of all the cooks in the shire.
Here Be Dragons 2006
Cuisine: Islamic
Comments: This was a 3 day event. The cooking is shared between several cooks but
a single Head Cook takes charge of the entire event and generally plans the majority of
the menu. The Head Cook is generally responsible for the main feast and the wrangle of
other cooks to do other meals - as well as picking up the slack of meal preparation
where needed.
Bardic 2006
Cuisine: Spanish
Comments: This is an event focused on presentations of poetry, singing,
music, etc. The feast is served around the presentations so that people eat and focus
on the presentations.
Here Be Dragons 2005
Cuisine: French
Comments: This was a 3 day event. The cooking is shared between several cooks but
a single Head Cook takes charge of the entire event. Unfortunately in 2005 I volunteered
to be Head Cook and then my daugther was born 9 days before the event so we were not sure
we would make it. As such I prepared the menus but did not know if I would attend the event.
We did, but I did not cook at all.
Bardic 2005
Cuisine: Roman
Comments: This was the first full feast that I had catered on my own. It went
well if a little under catered. But the food was very tasty.
Here Be Dragons 2004
Cuisine: German
Comments: This is the first full menu I had catered. It was a lunch as part
of Here Be Dragons. The sausages took longer to cook than anticipated... but it worked
well in the end.
