pickyeatingadults.com

I respect the fact that the majority of the people that most of you cook for are just the average run of the mill picky eaters that do not like certain foods, but do not generalize and make opinions about everyone.

And, if they complain that their food doesn’t smell as nice, well, point out that is because they don’t eat onions or garlic which is what makes foods smell nice.

Say it nicely, of course.

I’ll make chicken and plain pasts for the guest, but I probably won’t offer to cook for that person often, and am unlikely to ask them to be part of a group kitchen or a camping trip. I often, when dealing with more than ten people, will set up meals like fajitas or kababs to let people pick and choose around preferences. One woman glared down at my preferred ‘big group’ kebab selection of shrimp, scallops, beef, chicken, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, peppers (bell and hot), onions, mushrooms, tiny potatoes, pineapple, and tofu, said, “I can’t eat any of this junk!” and sat in ostentatious melancholy with a bologna sandwich, watching the rest of us grill our food and complaining loudly that her preferences had been ignored. I can’t abide that (the glaring and complaining, not the bologna sandwich). The same woman insisted that (despite low-fat dietary restrictions for a number of people on the campout) that we change the grilled fish to a ‘fish fry’ because the only way she’ll eat fish is battered and deep fried. Those of us on low-fat diets held our ground and grilled most of the fish; she brought herself a box of fish sticks so she could have ‘decent’ food.

My experience is less with a guest refusing to eat what’s been served, but more with one or two people holding a group hostage to their juvenile and unhealthy food issues. I’m sorry if you won’t eat a vegetable unless it’s batter-dipped and deep fried, but half the people eating this meal are on medically restricted low-fat diets. I’m sorry that you think all seafood is ‘icky’, but the rest of us are going out for sushi and you can either come along and try it, come along and order something else, or stay home. We’re not changing the plans to go to a restaurant that serves ‘real food’.

There’s a huge difference, by the way, between saying, “You have unreasonable requirements and I’m not going to great lengths to cook around them,” and badgering someone into eating what you think they should. What you did with your husband was refuse to accomodate his pickiness. There was a thing he could quite happily eat if he didn’t like the glazed carrots or the pork chops or the grilled eggplant, so it’s not like you forced him to eat what you made or starve.