Monday, April 4, 2011

Spring Crown Tourney Feast I

Last weekend I worked at the Crown Tourney in Turmstadt as the head cook. I had stressed about it for some time, but everything went well and according to my plans. I could enjoy the event and the cooking, and I got back some of the joy of cooking that I had lost a little while ago.

The theme was April's Fool, so I planned a feast of subtleties, or foods that look like something else than what they are. This was a risk, because a lot of people are picky of strange foods, but I was willing to risk it. The feast was supposed to be fun and surprizing and the food simple, tasty and plentiful.

My kitchen facilities were somewhat limited, so I had to make many things in advance, which in the end was very effective and gave me even time to rest on Saturday, something that is very unusual for the head cook. In this I also got help from a couple of marvelous people, Magdelene, who took care of the traveler's fare, breakfasts and lunch despite being busy with the tourney, and Alyna and Silvein, who were willing to make 300 meat balls and get them to the site on time. I can not thank them enough. Many more people helped me too, you know who you are, and I'm very thankful for your help.

I'm not the one to cook from precise recipes, that is why I like medieval cooking. As I know the medieval theory behind their recipes, I think that I can make my own medieval recipes without them losing being period enough. The theme and limited facilities that I had with this feast required me to tweak some of the existing resipes or invent new ones.

I'll post the recipes here one by one, but I would like to get feed back of the whole feast from those of my readers who were there. What went well and - most importantly - what could have been better?

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