User:Bfleetwood/The Cook from Canterbury Tales

The Cook Part One 1. What specific occupation does your character practice? The cook is just a cook. The cook probably served noblemen and worked on an estate. 2. What does the need for this occupation and the information surrounding it tell us about the time period? The poor cooked their own food, and the royalty hired their own chefs. Noble people were wealthy and had others do common duties like cooking and cleaning. 3. What was his or her social standing? The cook was considered a servant. 4. What might your character’s day to day life be like? Cooks at this time may have cooked over an open fire. 5. What details about this character does Chaucer not include? Chaucer tells us little about the character's looks. 6. What modern day occupation might correspond to your medieval character and why? The cook would cook with another chef today who prepares food in a restaurant or for rich people. We now can go to a bunch of different restaurants where the people serve us.

Part Two 1.Paraphrase each line of the prologue describing your character. The cook traveling in the group was alone, He would boil chicken and add and spices. He could taste any drink and tell you what kind it was He could cook anything name it. He made the best soups and pies. It made me feel bad that he had a knee injury. 2.Which lines in the prologue best describe your character’s physical appearance? There is not much to describe the cook. We only read about his injured knee. 3.Which lines describe his/her personality? There is also not much about his personality. He is only seen for his culinary skills. 4.Which specific words add to your understanding of the character’s personality? Tasty. Part Three 1.What is Chaucer’s opinion toward this character? He is only known for his cooking skills. He seems to respect his cooking abilities. 2.What specific lines or words tell you this? "He could roast and seethe and boil and fry" - Line 393 3.What word choices require an understanding of vocabulary from the time period? Define any unfamiliar words or phrases. Blancmange: French for white food. This was a dish with diced chicken, milk, sugar and almonds. 4.What is Chaucer trying to reveal or expose about the time period? Explain any satire you see as well. I learned earlier that cooks were sometimes seen as just peasants. Maybe the shortness of the text shows that he is not important compared to the others. 5.What do you think Chaucer's purpose of including this character was? He loved his food and everything that the cook made for him.