Du fait de cuisine: a retrospective

Venison pasties from Dame Edith's class
(Photo credit: Amy of Osgoldcross)

Du fait de cuisine, a food- and cooking-focused university-style event, was the brainchild of the three of us who manned the kitchen at Autumn Crown, a few years ago, and decided that enough time had passed from that overwhelming experience to contemplate doing something else. None of us had ever run an event, before, so what could possibly go wrong?

Nothing, really, it turns out. Of course, any event that doesn't require paperwork because of Police, Ambulance, or Embezzlement is a success, to my mind, and we had absolutely none of those. But this was even more better than that.

Here's what I loved

We achieved our goal of having a foodie event where people could take classes, eat stuff, and just chill. We had a little corner of cookbooks that people could thumb through, we had one kitchen for teaching and one kitchen just cooking random things all day, and Master Thomas sat outside with his firebox cooking things over open flame in the glorious sunshine. He was even close enough to the buildings that he truly seemed part of the proceedings (rather than being isolated at the fire pit which was on the other side of the site). 

The classes were interesting - everything from the practical to the theoretical. There were some lovely interactive opportunities, lots of good discussion and sharing of ideas, and lots of trying things out in low-stakes environments. And snacks. Lots of snacks. Nothing about the weekend felt rushed or too busy. Everyone seemed to find the thing they wanted to do, and did it. 

There was so much smiling!

I taught a new-for-me class on Feast Planning that started as this post I did a few years ago, which was well-received and sparked some great discussion. It occurs to me that a round-table about this sort of thing might be interesting, as there are several differing philosophies on Feasts And Feasting, even just among the people I know.

Alessandra di Riario's class on Papal Excess was interesting in that I learned a lot about the role of feasting as propaganda, but also because the secondary intent was to figure out how to recreate enough of a very specific feast to give the feeling of the original without the over-the-top costs. I'm looking forward to seeing that on a table near me soon.

Aodh's class on Early Irish Foodways was fabulous. It's always challenging to determine what people actually ate when there are no extant cookbooks and you're reliant on literature, legal tracts and archaeology, and he did a masterful job of it. It was satisfying to know that a lot of the information I'd collected two personae ago (Bebhinn of Blessed Memory) is still valid, and I'm delighted to share/give a few things I have left from that era to someone who will use them.

Court, of course, was everything we hoped for: short and full of excellent things. I even got to do a bit of stunt-scribing, to very good effect.

What I didn't love

The site itself. On the paper it looked pretty decent, but it had some issues I found deal-breakers for returning for an event like this. It wasn't as accessible as we'd hoped, which is a hard pass for me. The people that affected were gracious and good-natured about it, but they shouldn't have to be. The rooms were actually quite small, and there was nowhere to put your stuff. How they manage when it's full of tweenage boys is beyond me. And the roof in the upper activity room leaked in the morning - might have been condensation, might have been melting ice from the heavy frost, but it was drippy AF for quite some time. And the toilet/shower block was dire.

We didn't help ourselves very much by not discovering the thermostat for the main room until late Saturday afternoon, but we got there and it did make a difference.

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But even with those shortcomings, it was really just plain brilliant. People participated and pitched in with a smile. (NB: the site caretaker came out of the main activity room on Sunday morning with a stunned look and said we're welcome back at any time, since he's never seen the place so spotless in all his days.)

It's always a good sign when people assume there will be a next one and are already saying they're looking forward to it, and that goes for the event team as well. Plans are definitely afoot.