Revolution, Cooking and Knitting with Monica Gaudio

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 50

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/revolution-cooking-knitting-episode50/ 

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It’s the 50th episode! This week I’m in conversation with Monica Gaudio, known in the SCA as Illadore de Bedegrayne, and she is a cook, fencer, Marshal, Seneschal, knitter, Laurel and Master of Defence. We get into what all those titles mean in the episode.

Monica has been studying medieval cookery for 30 years, with a mostly hands-on approach, i.e. trying to feed anywhere from 40 to 150 people at feast or dinner in the most "period" way possible. She is known for an internet furore concerning a plagiarised apple pie recipe, which kicked off a massive “nerd rage”. So much so, there is a Wikipedia page about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooks_Source_infringement_controversy

Here's the medieval cooking website that Monica manages: http://www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.htm

When we talk about knitting, the book mentioned is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/History-Hand-Knitting-Richard-Rutt/dp/0979607345 and this is what a Monmouth Cap looks like:

(Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouth_cap)

As well as medieval cookery and knitting, we discuss the antagonism between the SCA and HEMA communities, and go into a bit of detail about how the SCA is structured and what all the different titles mean. Monica is an accomplished fencer, currently ranked 35th, and she shares her techniques for getting into the right mindset for the many tournaments that she competes in. For more on mindset, check out my Solo Training course, which Monica very kindly recommends: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/solo-training

And finally, listen to the end to hear about the revolution Monica is starting in the SCA, and the wider historical martial arts world. To join her, contact Monica on: monica.gaudio@gmail.com