THE COOK By: Samantha Howard

THE COOK’S PORTRAIT..  Starts out good, but gets disgusting. He has fairly decent dishes he makes, and cooking techniques: he can cook a chicken in spices, stew, or pie. He knows his London Ale (I’m assuming this is what he drinks all the time..)

 The cook does not run a sanitary kitchen. He has a gaping, puss-oozing wound on his leg, which makes them not want to eat anything he cooks, no matter how good it may be. There are also a lot of flies loose in his kitchen, and needless to say, he has given many pilgrims food poisoning. The Host says the Cook sells meat-pies regularly.

THE COOK’S TALE  The story starts telling of an apprentice named Perkyn who is fond of drinking and dancing. Perkyn is released by his master and moves in with a friend who also loves to drink, whose wife is a prostitute.  This tale was supposedly “deliberately unfinished” by Chaucer. Scholars say he meant to “rewrite” the tale for the Cook.

ALL IN ALL.. The Cook is an absolutely revolting person to be around, yet somehow seems to prepare a decent meal.