Feast Testing Form

    In an effort to put more of my work here into the blog for sharing, I'll be posting on here regularly for the next short while to get my blog as up to date as my Google Drive!

    Here is a copy of my Feast Testing Form, a small form I drafted several years ago to have people fill out while testing my dishes and feasts. I really like the feedback from folks this gets me, and it helps me to fine tune taste and texture issues I may not be aware of. Feel free to use this yourself if you wish, or use your own format! And if you do SCA meal planning and do some similar testing, I would love to see what you use.

What dish did you like best? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



What dish did you like least? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Please give a comment (positive or negative) on each of the following courses -



Course 1 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 2 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 3 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 4 - ______________________________________________________________




Course 5 - ______________________________________________________________



Any advice/suggestions for plating/presentation of any particular dish?


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Would you be willing to eat this at a Feast, now having tried it? _____________________

A Challenge Approaches!

I have a new challenge, recreating the Castle of Love. It's gonna be big, it's gonna be epic. I am madness for attempting this, but goddamn will it be amazing when I pull it off.

Here is a description of the dish, from Du Fait de Cuisine:

10. For a lofty entremet, that is a castle, there should be made for its base a fair large litter to be carried by four men, and in the said litter must be four towers to be put in each quarter of the said litter, and each tower should be fortified and machicolated; and each tower has crossbowmen and archers to defend the said fortress, and also in each tower is a candle or wax torch to illuminate; and they bear branches of all trees bearing all manner of flowers and fruit, and on the said branches all manner of birds. And in the lower court will be at the foot of each tower: in one of the towers, a boar's head armed and endored spitting fire; elsewhere a great pike, and this pike is cooked in three ways: the part of the pike toward the tail is fried, the middle part is boiled, and the head part is roasted on the grill; and the said pike is sitting at the foot of the other tower looking out from the beast spitting fire. One should take note of the sauces of the said pike with which it should be eaten, that is: the fried with oranges, the boiled with a good green sauce which should be made sour with a little vinegar, and the roast of the said pike should be eaten with green verjuice made of sorrel. At the foot of the other tower an endored piglet looking out and spitting fire; and at the foot of the other tower a swan which has been skinned and reclothed, also spitting fire. And in the middle of the four towers in the lower court a fountain of Love, from which fountain there should flow by a spout rosewater and clear wine; and above the said fountain are cages with doves and all flying birds. And on the heights of the said castle are standards, banners, and pennons; and beside the said fountain is a peacock which has been skinned and reclothed. And for this, I Chiquart have said before, I would like to teach to the said master who is to make it the art of the said peacock, and this to do courtesy and honor to his lord and master, that is to take a large fat goose, and spit it well and put it to roast well and cleanly and gaily [quickly?], and to recloth it in the plumage of the peacock and put it in the place where the peacock should be set, next to the fountain of love, with the wings extended; and make the tail spread, and to hold the neck raised high, as if it were alive, put a stick of wood inside the said neck which will make it hold straight. And for this the said cook must not flay the said peacock, but take the pinions to put on the goose and take the skin of the rump of the peacock where the feathers are held all together; and when it goes onto the goose, to make good skewers to make the said goose spread its tail as properly as the peacock if it were alive.
And on the battlements of the lower court should be chickens skinned and reclothed and endored, and endored hedgehogs, and endored apples made of meat, Spanish pots made of meat all endored; molded figures, that is: hares, brachets, deer, boars, the hunters with their horns, partridge, crayfish, dolphin, peas all molded and beans made all of molded meat. The curtains of the said castle which go all around the castle, should be so large hanging to the ground that one cannot see the bearers of the said castle. And the said curtains from the ground to two feet up should be painted with waves of water and large sea flowers; and among the said waves should be painted all sorts of fish, and above the said waters and waves should be galleys and ships full of people armed in all ways so that it seems they come to attack the said fortress and castle of Love, which appears to be on a great rock in the sea, of which people some are archers, crossbowmen, others are furnished with lances, others with ladders to lean against the said fortress, these climbing and those descending and pushing the others off, these divided and other things, these hard pressed and those in retreat, these being killed by arrows and those by stones.
And within the curtains should be three or four young children playing very well, one a rebec, another a lute, psaltery, or harp, and others who have good voices to sing appropriate, sweet, and pleasant songs so that one is aware that these are sirens in the sea by their clear singing.
And the peacock which is mentioned above, which by the advice of me, Chyquart, is the result of artifice, take it and clean it very well and then dry it well and properly, and spit it and put it to roast; and when it is nearly roasted stud it with good whole cloves well and properly; and if the surface is spoiled put it to roast again. And then let your lord know about your trick with the peacock and he can then arrange for what he wants done.
Oh yeah...
This is going to require a huge amount of planning to accomplish. Stay tuned for a wild ride.

#castleoflove

Preparations of a Feast Part 5

So far we've talked about the food culture, what food is being served, its flavor profile and appearance. Today, in my final post before the event, I want to talk about how you the guest should go into my feast to get the best eating experience.

When you sit down, the table will be decorated simply. This is done intentionally, to help you get into the simplistic mindset that the food will be dwelling in. Chopsticks will be provided for each guest, though not required it is highly encouraged that you eat with them to get the best experience. The chopsticks are very important, they will control your portioning as well as keep you eating each bite in the proper method. Japanese food culture evolved around chopsticks, using them will help you best experience this.

On the table before you will be some paper explaining much f what's on the table, and encouraging you to explore it. Once table service has begun, drinks will be served to refresh and prepare the palette for the food that will be consumed. The first course will be served as it would be for the Shogun himself, the dishes will  be announced and one at a time will they be presented. The Shogun (in this case TRM Trimaris) will approve the first course and the dishes will be given to the populous. The dishes can be eaten in any order or combination, each "course" is designed for all the food to be eaten as one, but there is a recommended order to trying them and the servers will bring the dishes in that order. 

With my artistic pieces, the servers will present this dish then read a haiku for the table. This poem pertains to the dish, it is meant to be pondered and considered as it is eaten to better enjoy, or if you wish to abstain then to simply admire the art and think on what the poem means to you. 

Each course will be brought out in such order, until the meal is complete. Take your time, enjoy each bite and relish the flavors as they blend and work within you. Your bites will be small due to the chopsticks, savor each one. Enjoy the work put before you, and let it inspire you and cause you to think of your own art that you endeavor. This is simple pleasures, simple joys of nourishment and companionship. Let the meal slowly ebb and flow into you like the tide, in no hurry and at its own pace.

For those sitting in my special seating, your experience will be quite similar but still has its unique qualities. Beyond the room decoration, each place setting will be provided for you. You will dine on pillows as is tradition, and will be honored guests of the Shogun and thus will be served by the head cook directly. It will be a fun time for everyone!

Thank you for following this progress, and for supporting me in this endeavor. This feast is by far the most complex I've ever done, and it is a labor of love not just by me but my friends and family as well. Expect a recap of the meal after the event.

Preparations for a Feast Part 4

As I said in a previous entry, one of the things I felt the need to touch on was how important the image of the food was to the meal itself. Yes the mood had to taste good, yes the food have to taste CORRECT (which I covered in Part 3); but almost as importantly the food had to LOOK artistic as well. Especially considering the “optional” food dishes, this is a topic I want to discuss in depth here.

    In Japanese high culture, art was the thing. The house was designed with art in mind, the clothing was an art, the weapons and armor had an artistic bent and to that even the food was artistic in nature. It was a sign of high culture, of refinement, that you were able to produce not only a good tasting meal but a good looking one at that. Understanding the artistic styles and applying them to food was an amazing gift that was meant to be shared, this is an aspect I am trying to emulate upcoming feast.

    So let’s talk about that, shall we? The food itself is to be a work of art, so it must look the part. Sauces will be carefully placed, not to smear or dribble about in presentation. Vegetables and fruit will be cut as square and clean as possible, to show off the angles of the cut. Plating will be warm and inviting, food will be arranged to create shapes or images (like my Triskle Chesnut design I’m gonna do) and the colors will be vibrant to stand out against the stark white serving gear. The idea for this artistic display is to heighten the taste of the food and appreciation for the skill of the artisan crafting it. It wasn’t just what was served on, it was the served items themselves.

    Another aspect to this style is food designed for appreciation, not so much for eating. A massive show of wealth, these were dishes that used inedible ingredients for color/shape or were often not that tasty. You were meant to reflect upon the nature of the dish, see what the dish meant to you, perhaps hear a haiku read about such a dish or just appreciate the artistic touch gone into crafting it. I have three such dishes, mine will all be edible because food science has given me a modern edge, and each is unique in its theme. The Pine Cone Tofu will be a baked tofu shaped to look like a pine cone and covered in sweet spices, it is shaped to look like a pine cone before it releases its seeds in promise of new life. The Uji River is designed to resemble the mighty river in the thaws of spring and new beginnings, Udon noodles dyed blue will run along the caramel colored sauce with pieces of Nori carefully placed along the sides to represent the green hills. Lastly is my Blue Sea Soup, a chilled cold soup of fruit juice dyed blue and topped with fresh made whip cream waves (fish shaped mochi topped with red bean paste will be served on the side which go delightfully well with the tasty dessert). 

    These dishes will be something amazing to look at, and I eagerly look forward to sharing them with my guests. This whole feast experience has been amazing, and I want to thank you for following along with me thus far. I have one last post to write before the big day, on how people who eat the food to get the full experience, which will come out soon. Stay tuned!

Preparations of a Feast Part 3

Couple of things before we get into the meat and potatoes of this post:

I recently did a redesign of my blog layout. I wanted it to be easier for everyone to read, I tagged similar posts so you could read specific posts and hopefully made this a better experience for you. Any feedback you have would be appreciated!

I did change my URL for this blog, so if you keep me bookmarked please update with the new URL above!

It’s still a work in progress, and I plan on doing more redesign work in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

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In my last post, one of the things I said I wanted to discuss was the flavor profiles of the food for this feast. The food here will be different than what most people with a Western palate are used to dining on, even more so for period food in the SCA. Japan, and other “Eastern” cultures in many extents, had a unique flavoring and seasoning palate for their food. For Japan, especially during the Edo Period, this style of cooking was already well settled into the cultural ideals and thus we have a fantastic view on not just how they viewed food but culture as well.

In French of English cooking, the use of spice and varied cooking techniques was designed to transform the food. Take the steak and vegetables, change the flavor with spice and styles of cooking, adjust and transform. All this is wonderful food, and I have cooked plenty Western styles of dish to a rousing success. But I can’t do that here...that’s not how it was done in Japan. In their style of cooking, the Japanese did not test their culinary art in how they could change the flavor of the dish but how they could accept and highlight the natural flavor of the ingredients and dish. This has been a challenge!

Take for example my Fresh Crane Soup. There are a number of challenges involved with this dish that I had to struggle with, and I want to use this as an example of Japanese flavor profiling. The Japanese viewed crane as a delicacy, something for the upper nobility, and thus this was a carefully crafted dish. The soups of Japan were more like broths, meant to prep the body for a meal and not to be a meal unto itself, so had light flavor and were served warm-to-hot to enhance the flavor. You boil and cook with natural complimenting ingredients so the flavor isn’t lost, and the soup is the lead in of another major dish. Had miso before? That’s another great example.

And thus the challenge begins. Crane is not something viable for me to get in bulk, so I had to substitute for duck (which one document I read says happened regularly as the the flavors were very close in taste). I had to unlearn everything I knew about making soup, just to perfect this dish. Instead of a chunky meal-type dish, I had to minimalize the amount of meat that would be in the soup without sacrificing flavor. To enhance I’m adding mushrooms and light spice to season, these will compliment the taste of the bird as well as enhance the flavor of the soup. I will serve is more on the warm side than the hot, to mellow a bit of the sharpness from one of the ingredients added as it blends best when warmed. The portions will be small, maybe 4/6oz of soup at MAX to not overindulge the flavor onto the guest. This way you are getting the natural, enhanced flavor of the soup expressed how it “should be”. This will be done for every dish.

That’s another thing I feel needs to be discussed with flavor, portion sizes. Along with the correct flavor, the correct AMOUNT of the flavor is also an important thing to take note on. In Western styles of cooking you would pile meats and sauces and vegetables high, you ate larger portions because there would be (on average) less dish options available. In this Japanese style each portion is carefully measured and weighed out to match not just the flavor but its place in the meal. My first course is SEVEN dishes, which means portion sizes will be small and gradually increase in small doses as the meal progresses. What that means is each guest will be given a 4/6oz portion of soup, 2/3 bites of pickle, 2 bird skewers, 3/4 chestnuts, one long and thick chopstick wrap of oolong noodle, etc. Each bite is carefully planned for so by the end of the meal the guest is comfortably full, each flavor is appreciated in kind and no one dish overpowers another. 

On my next post I will be discussing the illusion food aspect that I will attempt with each dish, how important it was to the dining experience and what you can expect to see at the event!

Preparations of a Feast Part 2

So in my last post we did a general overview of what is to be served at 30th year, today we discuss exactly what will be served. My menu for the event is thus:

Main Tray (Course 1)

Furesshukurēnsūpu 

(Fresh Crane soup)

Pikurusu

(Pickles)

Hakumai

(White Rice)

Kushi ni chīsana tori

(Small Birds on Skewers)

Ujigawa

(Uji River)

Kuri

(Chestnuts)

Painkōn tōfu

(Pine cone Tofu)

Second Tray (Course 2)

Fujisan no sarada

(Mt. Fuji salad)

Misoshiru

(Miso soup)

Sashimi

Jā-yaki sunaipu

(Grilled Snipe in Jars)

Edomaesushi

Third Tray (Course 3)

Mochigome

(Sweet rice)

Mikan to anto furūtsu

(Tangerines and Ant Fruit)

Burūshīsūpu

(Blue Sea Soup)

That sure does look like a lot of food, doesn’t it? A proper meal arranged like this does contain many dishes, but portion control is king in this style. One of the things to remember is that the primary eating utensil of the time was chopsticks, so each bite is designed to be properly sized for chopsticks. As well, each person can only eat so much food, and it was rude to snub a dish that was provided for you so culturally at least a bite was required. Over so many dishes, across such a wide variety of food, you would end up eating small amounts of each dish to be full in time for the end of the meal!

So when my guests sit down to dine at 30th year, they will not see mountains and piles of food on a plate but delicate and calculated portions. This is important for each of my guests to understand, so much so that I have created special cue cards for all my servers detailing not just things like ingredients/allergies but also portion sizes. Yes you may only be eating 2-3 pieces of sushi...but after already so much food will you really notice?

Another key detail is talking about some of the food itself. When a Western culture-raised individual thinks of a soup, perhaps you imagine hearty chunks of food and a creamy broth in a full bowl. You’re not wrong, and I’m hungry just thinking about it but that is not the Period Japanese style in terms of soup. A soup for them was light, sometimes savory or sweet, a deep rich broth filled with unique flavor. The soup was not a meal in itself, it was meant to be a part of a meal. With my Fresh Crane Soup for example, there will not be huge chunks of meat floating around to snag; it will be a delicate broth meant to add flavor, heighten anticipation for the next item and compliment the meal. 

Flavor profiles are something huge I also need to discuss, and will in my next post to more detail. Japanese valued a simple style in their art, and food was most definitely an art! You were meant to appreciate and admire the flavor of the white rice, the simple pleasure of melting tuna in edomaesushi, the crisp bite of eggplant or the rich soy flavor in a noodle. These are dishes not heavily spiced, or flavored to change the taste profile; these dishes were meant to be enjoyed as the flavor stood. Light seasoning to enhance the flavor will happen, and there is so much more I need to touch on this that i will on my next post.

In one last example, and another that I’m realizing needs a post all to itself, Japanese food of this period relied heavily on illusion and subtly. The art was not just in how it tastes, but how it looked. This is where things changed dramatically, yes the white rice was supposed to taste like rice but it was also supposed to be sculpted and shaped to look like a swan! Illusion food was such a commonplace that much of the text doesn’t even talk about how you should go out of your way to accomplish this; at the end it offhandedly talks about how you should make the food look. There are even dishes that are served that you are not required, or sometimes not even intended, to eat! The whole purpose of these dishes is to admire, reflect on what they mean to you and let their appearance and beauty enhance your eating experience. I have 3 such dishes in this feast alone; the Uji River, the Mt Fuji salad and the Blue Sea soup (all of which I will be discussing in detail in said next blog post).

What you can take away from this is that the food is going to be art, not just in visual style but in taste. It is my goal to preserve and enhance the natural flavors within each dish, to shape them to be visually pleasing and give my guests a unique dining experience they many not have had before in Trimaris. Portions will be small, but the whole meal will be filing with each bite.

Next time, I will dive deeper into the flavor profiles of my meals. Stay tuned!

Reflections on a Feast - TMT 2015

AndBefore I begin, I want to emphasize to any of my readers that the purpose of this blog is for me. It is a place I can reflect on my experiences and share my works, but most importantly it is a place for me to be brutally honest about what I do so I can learn. It helps me to explore why things work or don't, and give me things to look back on.

For starters, this was a very rough feast for me.

I'm not saying this was a bad feast, in many ways it was a success. Food was good, plenty of noms for folks, the shtick was lovely and everyone dining had a great time. Most people never really saw the cracks in the foundation either, which is also a success. This feast, by many standards of measurement, was a success and thus was a good feast. But this doesn't make it smooth or less than rough.

1) Feast Planning - My first stumbling blocks were at the very beginning with my feast planning. Now I had plenty of work into this, many test feasts and culinary food runs helped me plan this one out months before. I had a good firm foundation of planning, but things distracted me towards the end. The stress and strain of my job, combined with the stress and strain that this began to put on my relationships, distracted me.

What this caused was me to make a quite dramatic mathematical error in planning my shopping. While shopping for dry goods it wasn't too obvious, but as the food numbers began to add up with the produce and meat I was suddenly made quite aware. This was a rocky start to my weekend, which I had to scramble to correct. It also became difficult because I had purchased many dry ingredients slowly over the weeks and in many ways I overbought on too much.

As well, in the hustle and bustle many small items got left. My feast box had many pieces missing that I forgot to account for, and some really vital equipment didn't make it to site. This made me have to shuffle around to deal with site equipment, and more often than not I did not have everything I needed to provide to my volunteers.

2) On Site Prep (Friday/Saturday) - Friday was a long day. Yes I completed every task I needed to, but I poorly scheduled out many items. I was so focused on accomplishing prep goals on Friday that i overloaded myself on tiny tasks to get done. There were several small things that I should had done earlier in the week to make my life easier (see previous mention of former job stress being a distraction) that instead I tried to cram into the event and clogged me quite a bit.

Another thing that really hurt me was injuring myself. Yes I have hurt myself before (and probably will in the future), but the severity of this injury shook my confidence and really wrecked me. I was being cocky, cutting too much too quickly, and took a nice chunk out of my pinky. It bled for 2 hours, the wound gaped open and by all rights I should have simply gotten stitches. But I didn't, on reflection a poor choice. This made me go a bit unhinged and took the wind out of my sails.

What I mean by this is that while I normally have a great confidence in my ability, after 2 hours of being stuck and bleeding I started to second guess everything I did. I got nervous, uncomfortable and unsure. Dishes I had been practicing for months I wanted to suddenly change, I was unsure of portion control. Thank the gods I had my Laurel and one of my best cooking friends in the kitchen for me, to sometimes even smack me around when I needed it.

When I get nervous and uncomfortable, I start to get very micromanagie. I want my hands on everything, to grab and hold it tight when I don't feel I'm in control. More times than not this weekend I was in total control, but because I did not feel it I caused nothing but issues. There were times Madhavi had to force me away from a thing, because I just didn't need to be involved in what was going on.

3) Clean-up/departure - With my original clean-up plans falling through several times, having grabbed someone to cover the food replacement plan was nice. I still had issues here, because now that nerves were over I wasn't as focused on clean-up as I should have been. I don't feel I was polite to my fellow Cook and I felt like I did not set her up for success as much as I'd like to. I tried to get my things out as early as I could muster, but I know I was still muchly in her way.

As far as food removal, I feel I was less than stellar. I know I grabbed my leftovers that I knew were staged, but I know for a fact I left dry goods by accident on site. I fear I may have left more, and hopefully a good beat down from Wolfmom will better help me correct myself in the future. 

I know that there is a lot of things I did well, a lot of kitchen wizardry I pulled from my hood to make some magic happen. The food tasted great, the portions worked and every guest had an amazing time. But I feel it's important to recognize not just my successes, but my mistakes. It's how I learn, it's how I grow as a person and an apprentice. 

Next post will be much more positive, as well as a discussion of my favorite moments. But for today, I acknowledge my mistakes and am happy to have the learning experience.

Preparations of a Feast - Part 1

Coming up this Labor Day weekend will be my third, and most ambitious, kingdom feast yet. I am doing a period Early Edo feast, inspired by the feast the Emperor of Japan hosted to celebrate the second Shogun of the Edo Period. There are so many facets to this feast that I need to discuss, not just the food but the culture around the food, and my Laurel found the best way to do this would be a series of blogs. She is right, as per normal on things, so I'm starting a multi-part discussion on my feast and my process.

I wanna start this off by discussing Japan as a culture, how it got to this point and what we can glean from the food. One of the things I find fascinating is I can learn so much from a culture based on what/how they eat! In studying the food and meal preparation of this feast I have learned a great deal about Japanese culture and I feel enriched like never before.

The first thing to understanding this feast was for me to wrap my head around the time period this took place. This is just after the end of the greatest Japanese civil war, the Sengoku Jidai or Waring States Period. It was a time of great strife that lasted decades, with clans rising and falling and the whole social structure receiving a massive overhaul by the end going into the Edo period. What we know from that time is that with life in so much turmoil for the populous, many traditions were held tightly to the chest and ritual habits of everyday life became sacred and gained great importance. People NEEDED some stability in their lives, it's a human trait, and that's evidenced by many of the cultural shifts and changes. This also applies to their food.

Beginning in what in Europe would be referred to as the 14th century, the Honzen-ryōri (I'll use just Hozen for short) is a style of meal designed to structure and organize the new warrior culture that arose in the period just before the Waring States. The meal would organize and "tame" the new samurai class of nobility, and into the Edo period this would become THE meal of the nobility. The traditional Honzen would begin with 3 rounds of drinks, and be followed with three round last of food with 7/5/3 courses going down. 

Looking at the typical portions and type of food for the Hozen also reflects aspects of the culture. Nothing on the trays were larger than what a pair of chopsticks could reasonably hold, the soup was mostly thin to allow ease of sipping and almost every dish had an illusion or imagery attached. Ingredients were vegetable, rice (a staple), noodles, fish/marine life and water fowel. Sauces were few and far between, and most food was eaten "fresh" in some form or fashion. 

Knowing this, what can I gleam from the culture based on the food? Their main source of protein being fish, we can see that the Japanese culture will focus heavily on water and will have many myths/cultural stigma involved in such. Fishermen will be well respected, and you can imagine that there is predominately fresh food served to everyone. With each bite of food no larger than what chopsticks can reasonably hold, eating to excess or with great gutso is not a thing easily done. The Japanese developed a cultural stigma with shoveling food, and the Hozen has strict rules on how much to eat of each course before you move onto the next. The lack of sauces imply that the culture honors purity, enjoying and relishing the pure taste of the dish instead of an altered flavor profile. This again is evidence in Japanese culture, an almost isolationism that promotes Japan over all. Fresh food being served regularly is a sign of this purity as well. The over use of illusion food, of artistic presentation being almost more important to amount/quality of the food highlights a culture striving for high arts and trying to separate itself from what it may feel are barbaric roots.

Studying the food nets the same result as studying the culture, a proud people who strove for ideological purity especially after decades of devastating war. A culture which clung to the ideals of its society, and while very expressive in the medium given is rather isolated from much influence at this time. This is a culture that honors art, and struggles to find its humanity admits the warrior struggles of the noble class. This is a people who want to be better, but on their own terms.

Next time, we will discuss more specifically what food will be served, some of its history in Japanese culture and tackling several Japanese food myths.

And this is why I often avoid Internet forums...

So I take a lot of pride in the work I do as a cook. Both professionally in my own store and in my SCA life, my cooking and the work I go through to put on a good meal for people is a source of pride and joy in my life. It's why I tend to get frustrated with folks online, who prompt questions like "what is a bad feast experience" and those who respond with generally poor reasons to be unhappy.

I'm not saying that it is wrong to complain, or to have concern over an issue. It's not wrong at all, and Anne of their points are quite valid. I too worry about properly cooked food, I too express concern over health of my guests in the kitchen. I too would be worried about allergies if I had any, who would want to be worrying about dyeing for eating a nut?! These are all valid concerns, and things that would make a feast experience a bad one.

But then there are just some...whiny cry babies. I know the type, because I work in the industry that deals with them on a daily basis. People who have "concerns" or complaints that have nothing to do with a situation the cook can (or should) control. And seeing people go off on these topics, it just makes my teeth itch. I'm gonna tackle a few of these concerns , and really show why it's not that valid.

1) Servers

A lot of the complaints were focused on the servers, how there's not enough/not educated/seemed inattentive. And really, that annoys me. Everyone who serves feast at an event is a godsend, volunteers who bend over backwards to take care of others. Often times its younger children and teens, people who are turned away from many service roles and just want to be of help. Sometimes it's good gentles who couldn't afford feast/couldn't reserve in time and are willing to work for a meal.

None of them are paid, none of them are required to be there and none of them are responsible to you to have be same level of cheer and ass-kissing attentiveness that your waiter at Denny's will. They're not paid, they so this by choice, so shut up. 

2) Lack of modern food

I don't hear people complaining that there is a lack of modern fabrics on the Queens dress, or a lack of modern inks on a scroll, but it's ok to complain about a lack of mac'n'cheese for your five year old?

I get it, some period food can have strange or weird textures/palettes. Sometimes period food can be intimidating to first time eaters and I get that entirely. But to say a reason you wouldn't go to an SCA event feast is because the food isn't modern enough for you just maddens me. Why would you not want to try and experience period food?!

As for not catering to children needs or unique diets...there just isn't enough money or time. I don't have enough funds to spare (more on that in a moment) and I don't have dedicated teams ready. I have a limited kitchen with limited time and space, and often I have a very loose handle on WHO will be in my kitchen to assist. I can't cater to every whim, every last minute notification, every picky eater. And I don't deserve to have my feast called bad because of it.

3) Money

Find me anyplace that can provide you a 4-5 course meal including drinks all for 10 dollars. It doesn't exist, so why the hell do you wanna say the cost of feast is what turns you off?

I have packed and brought my own food when I wasn't a fan of feast, or when day tripping a smaller event. It costs me regularly 12-15 dollars to feed myself, more than the cost of the whole bloody feast!! I don't just understand how someone could gripe and complain about this cost.

"But Chris, think of the price of kids! A whole family would be so expensive!"

You're right, it would be. It would be the same if not more expensive if you went to Red Robin or Logan's Steakhouse. 

And do you really grasp how hard it is to feed everyone at 10 a head? For a 100 feast I get 10 dollars a person. Ontop of the 100 people, I need to feed high table for free which is an additional 16 people. Then including servers and the feast crew and you end up with feeding 130-140 individuals, for only 1000 dollars. That's breakfast, lunch, dinner and a small travelers Faire meal on Friday nights for just 1000 dollars. That's 7.69 I get to spend per person, just to break even, and feed everyone enough food.

Anyone who can pull off that amazing feat of purchasing should be admired and respected, not scorned because of the price asked.

Sorry to go off on a small rant, this kind of thing just really itches me. There are valid concerns and complaints that can make a feast bad, but too many of those comments came off as the type of patron I dread coming into my workplace.

Reflections on a Feast

So, it's been a while since Fall Coronation. Usually I try and write quickly after an event to capture my mind and my thoughts, but this event led me to sit and ponder a great deal. I learned a lot of things, both in skills as well as personally, and my emotions were a roller-coaster the entire time. Perhaps at a later date I'll share my "No shit there I was..." story for you all to enjoy, but maybe after some more time has past to protect the innocents (and me) from angry wrath :p. In between paragraphs I'll post pictures of my feast, because I'm pretty proud of it.

I never truly understood how good of a cook I was until this weekend. I know that sounds egotistical as shit, but anyone who honestly knows me is aware I am my own worst critic and am the last person to praise my work. Even after hearing my feast had sold out before the event even started wasn't enough to make me feel pride in my work, Jake can attest to my panic and concern at disappointing over 100 people with my "just ok" food. I just don't compliment myself well, so when things start to go tits up I know in my gut that I'm going to be a failure. Its an issue I struggle with during every creative work, but I've heard most artists suffer from the same so I'm not too stressed about it. But after this weekend...I dunno, something changed.

I was in a terrible space on Saturday, mentally as well as with my feast preparation. Things were going wrong everywhere, ingredients were not working and to me it felt like I had clearly not practiced enough. At one point I had a breakdown, needing to call Andi to get some kind of help through the woods I was clearly losing myself into. We were both struggling over the phone to figure out a way to solve it, when a single piece of information sank into my brain and suddenly I had it. It was a moment of clarity, where there wasn't sound or dark or loss...I just understood what I had to do.

From that point on, I was running on instinct. I've never butchered an animal before, but I knew how to do it. I don't know how I knew, I just knew what knife to use and where to cut to get my desired outcome. Thank goodness Squeaky gave me some tips on presentation for cutting purposes, and James Collins helped me make life a lot easier when my brain was acting stupid near the 2am mark. But I just knew what to do. And that happened for me all day Sunday. Problems rolled in, and I knew the answers before I had even thought about them. We had a problem, Andi or an of my other horde of Laurels would toss them at me and we were able to bounce ideas off each other until the problem was solved. It was like a dance, it was just a perfect swell and crest of music.

I learned I was a pretty good cook. Not just in actual knowledge, I knew enough about the processes instinctively through training to know how to fix problems or roll with any punch that got thrown at me. I knew when to ask for help, I knew when to take hints and to follow the advice of my peers. More importantly, I learned I could trust myself. When the chips were down, when I was forced in the corner...I found out I could trust myself to handle the pressure as best as any human can and produce a pretty excellent product. That's a pretty valuable lesson right there.

Besides all that fun stuff, I really did learn a lot of great things this event. Finding out you chose the right people to be friends and family with was nice, especially when they let me scream and stomp then give me booze and push me back into the kitchen. I also learned how to butcher a whole animal, the joys of that I cannot begin to describe, and how to remove eyeballs (far less joyous, more...curious). I learned that no matter how much you prepare, shit will go down and you have to deal with it. I also learned you cannot please everyone, and one person not properly reading your menu and thus complaining about allergies is totally not my problem. It also seems that I say unintentionally hilarious things in the kitchen when I am focused ("The 19th chicken rides the pig!") and many people will believe that I will serve eel for dessert.

Tomorrow I'll finish my what went right and wrong posts, until then thank you for your support. Yes even you, the one on the left.

Maybe its just me...

...or maybe I'm just too picky.

I've started all the planning for my Fall Coronation feast, and it once again brings me to wondering if I'm too "demanding" or too "picky" for my own good. I tend to have very specific visions and goals and ideals for things that I do, and too many times I feel like I'm the odd man out for having them :/

Now one thing I know I am is incredibly CDO (it's like OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be) about much of my life, and many of my friends can agree wholeheartedly that I like to over-plan  But I guess...I dunno. I don't think it unreasonable to begin planning as soon as possible, and to plan with all the information available. With the Fall Coronation feast, I was told the theme of the event was to be decided upon the culture/time period of the Crown Tourny winner at TMT. And I'm sorry, but 4 months is NOT enough time to plan a Kingdom level feast even if its something simple like English food. So when I set out to put down my menu for the bid, I did it with full mind that I would not be changing the menu much by prep time.

So I know that I'm doing a 14th century feast, French in design with dishes coming from Le Menagier de Paris. Some of my dishes may change during my prep work in the coming months, but going forward I know that I want feast hall attire and entertainment to be stylized after the 14th century French feast halls. That means doing a lot of research into great halls and feast hall designs for my event, researching how food was served and in what order, how music was presented and entertainment was provided ..then me slowly going mad when I am forced to rely upon others.

I know it's only been a few days, but I still don't know from my autocrat how many people I am serving. Without that number, it makes it hard to start dish prep and testing. I'm going with a number at 125, more than that and I'm unsure I could have people comfortably move through the hall to provide nourishment. I'm already moving on art and design for the hall, I've got a bunch of links and info to send to my friend Lana who is really good at translating my explosions of creation into a thing that will actually work. My friend Ever is already on board as my Hall steward, as soon as I can formalize the ideas I have for serving and presentation I'm hoping he'll really enjoy them. I have 3 wandering Minstrels, roving and personal entertainment for each table so the whole hall doesn't have to have its conversation disturbed by entertainment. 

All in all makes me wonder...am I too picky? Like, I admit I am VERY demanding and focused on what  want to see in a hall, or what/how I want things served, or what I want performed and when. I know I'm very hands on and very micro-managing, and I guess I just worry that my style will turn people away/is the wrong way to do things. 

Ah well, back to my research! As an aside, here is an example of 14th century Great Hall, a scaled recreation of the great hall in Yorkshire. While English in location, at the time there would have been a strong French influence in the upper nobilities designs and french tapestries would have been hung on the halls:

Fall Coronation 2013: Feast Prep

So, it turns out that the bid was awarded and Darkwater will be hosting the 2013 Fall Coronation. I am terribly excited, and terrified all at once.

Why terrified? Because I will be doing one of the Feasts for that weekend, one of our busiest events for the year.

This is a big opportunity for me to really flex my muscles, to learn and grow, to really shine and show the populous a fantastic time. I want to do a French feast, its popular food and allows room for a lot of creativity, and I want the feast hall to look good. I'm in the process of redacting all of my recipes, I have redacted versions available to me should I want them but I want to really own this and wanna redact them myself.

Not a lot to say at the moment, besides how honored and excited I am. And nervous, did I mention the nerves? I'm sure this blog will host a lot of my musings on the topic and other things in the coming months ;)

Queens Tea Post-Foodum: Success!

I know I know, War has been over for like...2 weeks. I've been a busy beaver with work, which I'm sure will be its own separate update soon, but finally I have a day of rest filled with nothing but time and here I am writing my post-foodum on the Queens Tea. This was my 5th SCA cooking project, in my opinion a real step up from everything else I've done. A year ago in February I did my first meal, cooking a lunch for a revel in  the Canton of Swampkeype, and a year later I am cooking for the current and formal royalty of the Knowne World! It was a great experience, full of good friends and great time, and a wonderful learning exercise for me in my development!

Things that went well:

. Pre-planning - Once again I am impressed dramatically at how pre-planning and prep work in advance can really help bring a day together. I had all of my recipe's on my laptop which I brought up, I was able to reference them on hand without having to worry about paper being lost or damaged outdoors. Having my test cooks done in advance meant I knew roughly how long each dish would take to cook and prep, which meant I could organize my time efficiently.

. Bringing extra - One thing I learned from Chalice is that it is better to over prepare when it comes to equipment. I had extra knives, extra trash bags, cleaning equipment and other such on hand. Last time I brought just as much as I needed, instead of planning for extra, and I came to regret that as the day went on. As I had extra of many items, as my needs increased for the day I was able to meet them fairly well. Having my back-ups was a super idea, regardless of how much extra space it took up in my car :p

. Note taking - As silly as it sounds, this blog and my obsessive note taking has been such a huge help I can't even begin to describe. Every mistake or success I've made in the pat year I've documented here or there, every lesson learned I've transcribed somewhere between these two sources for my own reference material. Having these around has been a major boon, I can reference all my past experiences to solve problems and plan ahead. I'll admit most of my day-to-day experiences are in my notebook, it's just easier to carry around then my laptop, and I'm hoping that I'll have time soon to transcribe what I've been doing in that onto the blog.

. Networking - Not a common positive I'll grant it, but it was a huge boon to me all of the friends I've made and people who have sought me out to be friendly with. I've met so many wonderful and amazing people, people who have taught me so much not just about cooking and the SCA but about myself and who I could be as a person. These are some great people who have aided me in my endeavors, and with whom-out I would be in some desperate straights. Having all this talent, these intelligent minds and these capable hands willing to assist at the drop of a hat is such an important part of my success I cannot begin to state it enough. I have a dream and idea, and these great folks make it happen.

Things that didn't go so well - 

I don't wanna say these things are a failure, because the food was great and everyone loved it. All these thing are things can be improved on, things I could have done better or things that I know not to do next time :p.

. Outside cooking concerns - Ahh, nature. I adore it so, yet she can be a fickle mistress when it comes to relying on it for any cooking endeavors. The high winds robbed my coals of their heat faster than my test cooking experiments had done, and even though I had purchased a little extra charcoal to cook with it just wasn't enough and we had to use Madhavi's portable propane cooker to finish the chicken. The high winds also made prep difficult, I had a habit of losing plates and napkin to the breeze. The cloudless sky out of the blue also made the harsh sunlight break down on my assistants, Madhavi and I both agreed that next year to invest in a pop-up for comfort.

. Reliance on "time" - This is my biggest sticking point, because it's how I've been all my life. Things operate on time, they happen at the time decided upon and if things change you're notified in advance. I do my best to be flexible and ready to roll with any punches, and I am generally really awesome at that, but I still can't help my nerves or the jarring sensation I feel when things suddenly change on me out of nowhere. The 5 minutes till start time change of location had me in a tizzy, but I just have to learn to recover and bounce from these changes better without letting it panic me that everything is ruined.

. Scheduling myself - I am a person who likes to stay busy, even my free time I tend to occupy with mental tasks like rearranging rooms or organizing books, and I can have a bad habit of over-scheduling myself. When I take on too many tasks, I know things start to suffer and I lose sight and focus. My work life was evolving faster and more complex by the day then I could imagine, never did I suspect 3 promotions in 3 months, and that took away much of my focus. On top of planning this I was organizing a LARP weekend, working every day of the week, focusing on spending as much time with my girlfriend as possible, dealing with family headaches, working on learning retainer duties for my newest Excellencies and learning the ropes of a Canton A/S job. It was too much at one time, and I did it to myself by giving myself too much stress.

All in all, I had a great time and learned a lot about cooking and about myself. I got compliments from the people I fed and from those who got to work with me, they understood how nervous I was to be a supervisor and not a direct cook! I had a blast working with so many talented and gracious folks, and cannot wait for my next cooking adventures!

By the course - breaking down the Chalice Feast

Each course of my last Feast was a separate recipe, and each one came with its own set of challenges. Some were easy and simple, while others provided hazards in just cooking them! Here i a breakdown of the last Feast, course by course.

Course #1

. Brot und Äpfel
Baked loaf bread served with a side of butter (both salted and honey) and freshly cut apples drizzled with a hint of honey.

This was a simple and easy choice as far as into courses go. Bread was a common staple diet for the Middle Ages, and fruit selections were also common for a noble environment. Raw apples were not overly eaten in Germany, but a simple plating of them for the first course nibbles would suffice and be appropriate.


. Gewürzgurken
Fresh cucumbers sliced and generously coated in salt, pepper, fennel seed and caraway. A light coating of vinegar helps to seal in the flavor and accent the sweetness of the spices as well as the wet crispness of the cucumber.

The original recipe for the pickled cucumbers is as follows:

Marx Rumpoldt:
Schel die Murcken (sic!) / und schneidt sie breit unnd dünn / mach sie an mit Oel /
Pfeffer und Saltz. Seind sie aber eyngesaltzen / so seind sie auch nit böß / seind besser
als roh / denn man kans eynsaltzen mit Fenchel und mit Kümel / daß man sie uber ein Jar
kan behalten. Unnd am Rheinstrom nennet man es Cucummern.

Peel the cucumbers and slice them broad and thin, and dress them with oil, pepper and salt.
But if they are salted, they are also not bad, they are better than raw, because you can salt
them with fennel and caraway so that you can keep them for a whole year. And on the Rhine
they are called Cucummern.

This made for a very tasty nibble, I substituted vinegar for the oil to give it a bit ore bite which helped balance the sweetness of the apples. This was a very easy dish to prepare, just storage for the slices was the hardest part. They needed  abit more space for the full portions than I was ready for, so next time more storage containers!

Course #2

. Pilze und Zwiebel Suppe
A clean and warm soup of mushrooms and onions, simmered for hours and stewed generously with saffron and fresh sea salt.

 Marx Rumpoldt:
 Nimm duerre Schwammen / wasch sie sauber auß etlichen Wassern / setz sie
zu mit Erbeßbrueh unnd klein geschweißten Zwibeln / mach es ab mit Essig /
Pfeffer / mit Saffran und Saltz / laß miteinander ein stundt oder zwo sieden
/ so wirt es gut und wolgeschmack

Take dried mushrooms, wash then several times until they are clean and place them on the
fire with pease broth and small fried onions. Season it with vinegar, pepper, saffron and salt
and boil it together an hour or two. Thus it will be good and tasty.

From the same 16th century source as the cucumbers, this is another great soup. The onions seemed to have a sweetness all to their own after a while of simmering for the soup, I had to very carefully balance the sea salt with the onions sweetness as to not have the two flavors conflict. The hardest part was just the time, this took up a lot of stove space for a long time as it slowly simmered for hours. 





. Frikadellen
Ground beef mixed with bread crumbs, garlic and a pinch of pork belly meat that are rolled into balls and boiled to a juicy finish. Served in a small pool of beef broth.

Maister Hannsen:
Knödel mach also. Item nym ain kalbflaisch vnd hack speck darunder vnd gewürcz wol
vnd reibs, thue ayer vnd weiss prot darund(er) vnd mach kügelein daraus vnd sewd es mit
haissem wasser vnd schneid sy vnd gib es hin zue essen.

To make meatballs: Take veal and chop bacon into it and season it well, grind it, add eggs and
white bread and make balls of it. Cook them in hot water, cut them and serve them to eat.

This is a late 15th century recipe from Germany, and very tasty. This one was critical, not just as a supporting meat portion for this course but because all the beef broth made by boiling the meatballs would be used in travelers faire as well as lunch! This was the very first thing I cooked on Friday after arriving onto site, cold storing the cooked meatballs then slowly waring them an hour before feast back in the same broth.






. Salat
A fresh lettuce and herb salad, lightly dusted with salt. Goes great when eaten either with the meatballs or the mushroom and onion soup.





There was no true recipe for this dish, I've made a number of salat's before for personal meals from a variety of sources and I made a simple enough one that would go well with the overall course. This was fresh lettuce and greens, shredded with fresh thyme and rosemary and parsley added in. This was specifically over spiced, to go with the under spiced meatballs and soup. The populous was encouraged to eat the salat with either or both other dishes for full flavor experience!

Course #3

. Wurst in Apfelmus
Pork sausages coated in a ground pepper and salt mixture, grilled in a sauce of fresh diced apples. These can be covered in either the fresh green herb sauce or hearty saffron sauce provided with this course, as well as be eaten unadorned.

Innsbruck:
 Wildu ein gemacht wurst machen, so henk di wurst in ein rauch und brat si
dann und mach dann ein ziseindel dar uber mit zwifeln oder mit opfeln etc.

If you wish to make a made sausage, hang it in the smoke and then roast it and add a sauce of
apples or onions etc.

This was a tricky dish to cook, because I couldn't prepare it much ahead of time. The finely diced apples could sit a while in a lemon juice mixture, and I could season and prep all the sausages hours in advance, but cooking couldn't happen till the last possible chance. I added a bit of liquid smoke to mimic the husky flavor, as well as some black lava salt for the charcoal taste, and then roasted the sausages as best I could. This was one of the harder dishes to prepare!

. Carbonadoes gegrillt
Grilled beef steaks, covered in a ginger glaze that are coked over open coals. These can be covered in either the fresh green herb sauce or hearty saffron sauce provided with this course, as well as be eaten unadorned.

Frantz de Rontzier:
Karbanart von Rinder unnd Hamelfleisch/ Schwein/ Hirsch unnd Rehe
Wildbrat Wenn mans thun will / mag man uber die Karbanart / wenn sie gar
sein / Wein oder Bieressig geben. Man sol sie allezeit / ehe sie gebraten
werden / mit einem Messerruecken schlagen daß sie moerbe werden. Man bradet
die Moerbraten oder Magerfleisch auff einer Rost / besprengets mit Saltze gibts
zum tische / etc. Man legts ein Nacht in Essig / darnach besprengvet mans
auff einer Rost mit Salz / und lests haftig abbraten etc
Item man vermischet Salz und Pfeffer / bestrewet sie damit unnd bradet sie
darnach auff einer Rost / wenn sie gar sein gibt mans also warm zum tische.
Item man bestrewet sie mit Saltze und Ingber / und bradet sie auff einer
Rost / und gibts zu tische.
Item / man bestrewet sie mit Muscatenblumen unnd Saltz / unnd bradet sie
auff einer Rost / etc.
Item / man bestrewet sie mit Saltze und Negelein / bradet sie dann ab / etc.
Item/man bestrewet sie mit Gartenkoehm und Saltz / bradet sie damit ab /etc.
Item / man bestrewet sie mit Gartenkoellen / gruen oder duer / und Saltz /
darnach bradet man sie ab / begeust sie mit Butter oder Bratenfeiste / etc
Item / man bestrewet sie mit zerstossen Wacholderbirn unnd Saltz / wenn sie
auff die helfte gebraten sein / etc.

Carbonadoes of Beef and Mutton, Pork, and Venison of Hart and Roe Deer
If you want you can pour vinegar or alegar over the carbonadoes once they are grilled. You
must always beat them with the back of a knife before they are grilled so that they become
tender.
You roast tender roast or lean meat on a griddle, sprinkle it with salt and serve it etc.
You place it in vinegar overnight, sprinkle it with salt on the griddle and roast it over very hot
coals, etc.
You sprinkle them with ground dried juniper berries and salt when they are half done etc.
You mix salt and pepper, sprinkle them with it, then roast them on a griddle and serve them
when they are done.
You sprinkle them with salt and ginger, fry them on a griddle, and serve them.
You sprinkle them with salt and ginger, fry them on a griddle, and serve them.
You sprinkle them with salt and mace and fry them on a griddle etc.
You sprinkle them with salt and cloves, fry them, etc.
You sprinkle them with salt and caraway and then roast them etc.
You sprinkle them with caraway, green or dried, and salt and fry them, then pour butter or
dripping over them etc.

This was a fun dish, with plenty of options! I used Angus eye round steak for the meat cut, and each person was cut a 4oz portion of steak. I tenderized each piece then did a simple glaze of salt, pepper, oil and ginger. Once glazed and cooled to dry and lock in the flavor, I had the steaks grilled over open coals to give them that dusky sweetness that smoke provides. This was another tricky dish, as the timing had to be just right for them to still be warm and juicy. As well I ran out of heat from my coals 3/4 the way through and had to switch to a flattop griddle for the last bit! The green herb sauce was served on the side, I felt the steak had its own flavor but the herbs sauce gave it a unique bite. The recipe for the green herb sauce is as follows:

De salsa viridi: ad salsam viridem accipe petrosillum cum menta, fusticellas,
cardamomum, nucem muscatam, piper, gariofilum, zinziber. Tere omnia in mortario
fortiter et cum eis tere parum de mica panis. Et si vis, potes ponere allea. Distempera
cum bono aceto.

Green sauce. For green sauce take parsley with mint, 'fusticelli' (possibly a variety of pepper,
or pine nuts), cardamom, nutmeg, pepper, cloves and ginger. Grind it all in a mortar, and a
small piece of bread along with it. If you want, add garlic. And mix it with good vinegar.





. Teigwaren
Lightly boiled pasta, coated with a thin layer of sweet butter. These can be covered in either the fresh green herb sauce or hearty saffron sauce provided with this course, as well as be eaten unadorned.

 Marx Rumpoldt:
Nudel gekocht mit Erbeßbrüh unnd Muscatenblüt / mit Butter / und ein wenig gelb gemacht
/ so ist es gut und wolgeschmack.

Noodles cooked with pease broth and mace, with butter, and made yellow a bit, these will be
good and tasty.

Another simple dish, just the portions were tricky! I underestimated how much 10 pounds of pasta would take up in space, and had to cook this in 3 separate containers! The sauce fr the pasta came out so well, I was riginally going to cook it seperate and serve in on the side but I had the pasta done earlier than epected and thus had to blend the saffron sauce in with the noodles to preserve the food dish.

Course #4

. Funnelcake
Fried cakes, cooked in a hot oil, shaped into a circular style funnel. Topped off with powdered sugar and happiness.

  Marx Rumpoldt:
 Mach ein Teig mit guter Milch / schlag drei oder vier Eyer darein / und ruer jn wol glat
an / mach Loecher durch ein Hafen / der nicht groß ist / geuß den Teig darein / und halt
ein Teller unten auff den Boden / daß der Teig nicht heraus rinnet / daß du es kanst
kreutzweiß in heisse Butter eynziehen / zeuchs nicht zu dick eyn / daß es kann außbacken /
bestraew es mit Zucker / unnd gibs kalt oder warm auff ein Tisch / so ist es ein gut
Strauben Gebackens.

Make a batter of good milk, break three or four eggs into it and stir it until it is nice and
smooth. Make holes into a pot that is not too large, pour the batter into it and hold a plate
against the bottom so it does not run out. You can pour it crosswise into hot butter. Do not
pour it on too thick so that it can bake. Sprinkle it with sugar and serve it warm or cold.
These are good fritters.

I won't lie...I totally cheated and used a premade batter. It tasted ust a great and cooked just as well as the stuff I amde at home to test, and was cheaper! The oil frying was simple and clean, thank god, and this dish came out great. It was a bit of a nail biter because I couldn't start it till ust before Feast started, as the fritters tasted better fresh.


. Termine Speckmantel
Pitted dates, wrapped in bacon and baked in a warm oven until done. Its bacon, its dates, its amazing.

There is no period recipe for this dish that I have seen, I think this falls into the category of period-like foods eaten at a Feast. It is very popular in Trimaris and a dish I find very yummy, so I thought it appropriate to use it to finish off my dessert! This was very simple to make, it could be made hours in advance and ust sat aside for later consuming.

Hero of the Chalice - A Feast in Review

So yeah...Chalice.

Sorry I haven't updated this blog in a while, life has been a whirlwind of things in all of December. Started my new job (which is going GREAT), been helping two friends with moving into a new place and of course all the planning for the feast at Chalice. Now that Chalice is over I can dedicate more time to working on the Queens Tea for Gulf Wars, but that's another post for another day. Today will be covering and talking about the feast itself! It was exciting and one that will stick in my memory for a VERY long time. I had so any people offering help and providing services to me that I can barely remember all their names, and I could never have done all this work and pulled off such a wonderful feast without their support and aid.

So...Hero of the Chalice was my first feast ever!I spent many days and days planning it, testing recipes and checking in with my Laurel to make sure I was on track that when the feast actually rolled in I was pumped and excited. The feast went better than I hoped it would, the hall decor clicked great and everyone really loved the food. Some reactions to the dishes were surprising while others were expected, and everyone left full. I learned a lot of lessons, and was very patiently taught a few others, and this was an overwhelmingly positive experience!

This ended up being my final menu, I was pretty happy with the results. Almost every dish was taken from Plain Faire, a collection of camp recipes assembled by a Laurel in the Kingdom of Drackenwald:

 Travelers Faire:
. Verbotene Eintopf
This dish is a dangerous secret, forbidden from use for its potency of flavor. Tender beef roast is slowly stewed with a collection of spices, stoked over a flame and drowned in red wine to provide the perfect introduction to a weekend of merriment.Just don't tell Mistress Madhavi that her apprentice cooked this!

Breakfast:
. Rührei
Eggs are cracked and scrambled, tossed with salt and shredded cheese and served with a side of ground pepper.
. Glasierte Toaste
Loaf bread covered in a freshly scrambled egg glaze, lightly dusted with cinnamon and brown sugar then grilled till light and crispy. Covered with a helping of powdered sugar and maple sauce.

Lunch:
. Zitrone Rindergulasch
A rich and hearty stew, cooked with fresh mixed herbs and peppercorns. The salted lemons provide a sweet twist to complement the dish, and the warm feeling will accompany you through the remainder of the day.

Dinner:
1st Course -
. Brot und Äpfel
Baked loaf bread served with a side of butter (both salted and honey) and freshly cut apples drizzled with a hint of honey.
. Gewürzgurken
Fresh cucumbers sliced and generously coated in salt, pepper, fennel seed and caraway. A light coating of vinegar helps to seal in the flavor and accent the sweetness of the spices as well as the wet crispness of the cucumber.

2nd Course -

. Pilze und Zwiebel Suppe
A clean and warm soup of mushrooms and onions, simmered for hours and stewed generously with saffron and fresh sea salt.
. Frikadellen
Ground beef mixed with bread crumbs, garlic and a pinch of pork belly meat that are rolled into balls and boiled to a juicy finish. Served in a small pool of beef broth.
. Salat
A fresh lettuce and herb salad, lightly dusted with salt. Goes great when eaten either with the meatballs or the mushroom and onion soup.

3rd Course -

. Wurst in Apfelmus
Pork sausages coated in a ground pepper and salt mixture, grilled in a sauce of fresh diced apples. These can be covered in either the fresh green herb sauce or hearty saffron sauce provided with this course, as well as be eaten unadorned.
. Carbonadoes gegrillt
Grilled beef steaks, covered in a ginger glaze that are coked over open coals. These can be covered in either the fresh green herb sauce or hearty saffron sauce provided with this course, as well as be eaten unadorned.
. Teigwaren
Lightly boiled pasta, coated with a thin layer of sweet butter. These can be covered in either the fresh green herb sauce or hearty saffron sauce provided with this course, as well as be eaten unadorned.

Dessert -

. Funnelcake
Fried cakes, cooked in a hot oil, shaped into a circular style funnel. Topped off with powdered sugar and happiness.
. Termine Speckmantel
Pitted dates, wrapped in bacon and baked in a warm oven until done. Its bacon, its dates, its amazing.

Of all the dishes, the mushroom and onion soup was the only surprise. I knew the meat portions would do well, as would the bread because who doesn't love fresh bread, but the veracity that they attacked the soup was overwhelming! Everyone got a 9oz portion of soup, and when I got the pot back it had been scraped clean of every last drop!

What went right:

. Pre-planning, dear lord I cannot praise this enough.

Multiple copies of my recipes and schedules saved me many a time, and countless tests of each dish let me know immediately if something was working or not. Keeping my Royals in mind saved me when our Paleo diet King surprised us by dropping in, planning with him in mind I was able to ensure he could eat most dishes in each course.

. Knowing when to trust, and when to do myself was spot on.

I knew I could trust my Hall Steward to handle servers, heralding, decoration and food distribution once it was plated and handed off. All day I had server/seating/decor questions and all day the answer was "speak with my Hall Steward", because I knew I could trust her totally! I also knew that sometimes the quickest route was doing it myself, which I felt safe doing because I trusted the help in my kitchen. Too often I've seen messengers delayed/distracted when the head cook NEEDS and answer, so I resolved this problem by finding the answer myself when it was most important. Its not that I didn't trust them; I just knew the messages would be passed accurately and quickly if I did it, and I trusted my kitchen help to stay to task.

. Mandatory rest!

I scheduled time to rest, which was key to me being successful I feel. I made sure to set time aside for me to sit and eat, to take time to converse with friends and even a small meditation break to calm my nerves. Keeping myself hydrated and rested really helped me steel my nerves during crunch time.

 What went wrong:

. Know when to plan, know when to go with the flow!

I am a rather organized and scheduled person by nature, and its a habit for me to try and schedule everything. One thing that didn't fit my schedule no matter how hard I tried was court/royal timetables. Court ran late, and thus the mood of the gentles eating changed as they desired chitchat time prior to and during the first course. Also I should have checked with the lyst field for lunch, while lunch was set for noon the fighters didn't finish a set till 12:30 thus delaying lunch. In the future, being more flexible during these flux times is key.

. Take more than I need, instead of exactly what I need.

The camp we were using has a good amount of cookware available to be used, but you have to check it all out for loan. I'm always nervous about other peoples gear, so I checked out exactly what I needed instead of a few pieces extra just in case. The idea was to lessen my stress AND have less dishes to wash, except that it turned out I needed extra pots and pans quicker than I had thought. I was scrambling to wash dishes, and later scrambling to get extra pots when I should have been resting. The same goes for milk and creamer, I thought what I had was enough exact but there are a GREAT many more coffee drinkers than I had counted on.

Lessons Learned: 

. Planning is good, planning will save your butt! Always give yourself extra time. 
. Overprep, don't prep straight to the line. Accidents happen!
. Trimarian's GUZZLE coffee! Bring extra creamer and milk!
. Assume on blah days people will be late, delay food prep fr maximum freshness.
. Always prepare with Crown/Nobles in mind, you never know when they'll surprise you with a visit!
. ALWAYS have things for people to do, they'll be happy to work!
. Don't forget to QUADRUPLE CHECK with the nobles, they have a bad habit of forgetting what thier food preferences are!
. Get extra utenils and bowls, don't get just enough. Have extras is never bad!
. Check if its plugged it, don't be a doofus!

Chalice Feast thingz

So, here is the current up-to-date Chalice Feast menu -

Travelers Dish (Fri night):

Chili (It's gonna be cold most likely, a warm chili will help)
Water
Tea

Breakfast:

Eggs (scambled, plain or with cheese!)
Glazed Toaste
Water
Tea
Coffee

Lunch:

Cold cut sandwiches - Ham or chicken, served on a small roll with mustard and fresh cut onion rings
Pickle spear
Water
Tea

Dinner:

Beverage choices -

. Water
. Tea (sweetened and nonsweetened)
. Lemonade (not period, but popular)

First Course - 

. Bread and butter (honey, spiced, plain)
. Apple slices
. Pasta with Saffron and Mace

Second Course -

. Mushroom Onion Soup
. Meatballs with a honey mustard sauce
. Salat

Third Course -

. Sausage in an Apple and Onion sauce
. Barbequed Carbonadoes (various meat selections BBQ'd and spiced)

Fourth Course -

. Funnelcake
. Bacon-wrapped dates

I am doing a Feast for 60 people, so my budget is 600. I may subtract/change dishes as my finances allow, I'll be going and price checking down at Restaurant Depot next weekend. There's a couple things still up in the air that I'm waiting to hear back on that could change the food items a bit, such as if the lunch is including Feast or a fundraising one.

With 60 people being served, I have to add a few more numbers to get my total for food to prepare. High Table is not counted amongst that number, the largest I've seen is 16 so I'll plan for that. I also need to include kitchen staff and servers, to make sure they have enough noms for their service. I'll give that an additional 10, making the total servings needed to account for as 86. Which means I need to spend roughly 6.98 on each person, to maximize my 600 and feed everyone I need to feed. I'm gonna be spending a lot of my free time this weekend on figuring this math out on my portions for each dish so when I price-check I can see how far over/under I am and where I need to adjust.

Gonna be putting out calls for kitchen-staff help and serving help having some confirmed people on my side in advance will really help me avoid extra stress. I'm hoping to find someone to handle Lunch, I don't mind breakfast but that meal in the middle of the day will throw me ff if I have to handle it myself.

I want matching tabards! I know its gonna be a stretch, and not as likely to follow through, but I would LOVE for all my servers to be wearing a matching tabard because it's a good period display. Also, it would look cool. I'm currently shopping around for donations of fabric, is anyone has any they wouldn't mind parting with I'd love to take it off your hands!

Another idea I really wanna do is a fancy presentation for dessert. You know at the end of the Feast, before dessert is called, when they call out the cooking staff and servers to be recognized? I want all my staff to come out and each holding a covered dish. When the thank you's are given and they ask for the dessert to be brought forth, I want the covers to be removed to show that dessert is ready NOW! So they're served immediately, High Table first then the populous.

I dunno, I think it's pretty cool :). This is gonna be an awesome time.

Queen's Luncheon - my turn now

So last year, at Gulf Wars, I was here:

This is from the Queens Luncheon at Gulf Wars 21, this was a huge cooking experience for me and one of my best memories from the War. So many talented cooks, so much knowledge and tips and tricks I learned and wrote down in my book from this fun moment. After this event I knew flat out that I wanted to be a cook, that I wanted to one day be a Laurel and that I was so sure that my choice to ask Mistress Madhavi to be my teacher was the right one.

And now, it's my turn to run it.

There was joking once we got back to camp after the luncheon, I was still excited and bouncing from the experience and was told jokingly that it would be my turn next (strangely enough one of them was Mistress Brenna). I didn't think I would be offered such a role anytime soon, and had dreams of one day perhaps doing such a Big Deal(tm) meal. At Fall Coronation, it seems one of my dreams came true when I was personally asked by her Imperial Majesty Brenna to handle and run the Queens Luncheon at Gulf Wars 22.

I'll admit, my jaw may have dropped a touch at the stunning offer and I may have been rather shocked and surprised. I spoke it over with Mistress Madhavi, and she was as excited for me as I was excited for the opportunity. Knowing I had her support and the support of my friends and peers, I happily spoke with Empress Brenna and started the ball rolling on plans for this cooking event. And oh man...has this project consumed me.

It's not often that I get so consumed and gripped by a project, and this one has me by the throat. I've spent days and days sketching out ideas, researching any other cooking Laurel's blogs I can find on cooking large meals outdoors, talking with various people to make this project just feel...amazing. I want this to be amazing, for me. It's something I'm focusing on, that end road, and I can't help but beam and imagine in my head the final product. I have so many idea's, so many things I cannot wait to go over with my teacher when I see her next at Michaelmas and pick her brain for all the knowledge I can drain from it.

Part of my downfall with these kinds of projects is I ALWAYS want to go big or go home. The hardest part is always cutting away the things I want, to get to the things I need. I know I want the meal to be as period as possible. I know I want to food and the images to be a matching theme/period/culture. I know I want it to taste great, and I know I want to follow many of Mistress Madhavi's brilliant idea's including preparing food prior to and cooking right next to the site.

I am so excited for this project, and this blog may at times be overcome with my idea's and discussions on what I want from this luncheon. Just a friendly warning, you may get terribly hungry with the things you read here!