Picky Eaters

Over the 25 years I’ve been alive, I’ve met plenty of picky eaters. (And for the record, people with food sensitivities, religious dietary restrictions or those who choose to be vegetarian/vegan don’t count as “picky” for the purposes of this argument.) Also, I'm not including kids right now, because I'm willing to give them some leeway. I find picky eaters’ entire existence to be weird to me, but then again, I don’t consider myself picky. There are three or four things I refuse to eat, but that’s it. After a lot of thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two types of picky eaters: removers and non-removers.

Here’s what I mean- Person A and Person B are both picky, and for the point of this argument, they both dislike the same food, say mushrooms. They both go to a pizza party where all the cheese pizza has been eaten, leaving only mushroom left. Person A will remove the offending topping and eating their now mushroom-less pizza. Person B will sit in the corner and sulk about the fact that there’s no cheese pizza left. Person A is a “remover”, Person B is not. I tend to dislike Person B a lot more.

Don’t get me wrong. People like what they like. Everyone in my family except me likes zucchini; hearing how much they like it doesn’t make me any more inclined to eat it. But I also don’t expect everyone else to accommodate my preferences. If I dish has something I don’t like, I’ll eat around it or get something else. If cheese pizza is the only kind of pizza you’ll eat, and you refuse to remove any toppings you dislike, either ask someone to save you some, or get in line before all the cheese is eaten. It’s not my responsibility to make sure your specific tastes are accounted for.

Thinking about picky eaters, in the above example, got me thinking about picky eaters at restaurants. Having worked in food service before, I’ve got some strong opinions about accommodating people with very particular taste. My philosophy boils down to this: be realistic and don’t make your specific order super disruptive to the person making it. You want a burger, but without lettuce? That’s fine. The burger is made-to-order, they can just not put the lettuce on. You want clam chowder without potatoes in it? Not gonna happen. The chowder’s already been made, the kitchen’s not gonna make a separate soup just for you. It all depends on what you don’t want and are trying to remove. My sister doesn’t like poached eggs, but she loves eggs Benedict; her solution is to order “eggs Benedict without the egg”. She gets weird looks, but its possible to do that. A restaurant probably can’t give you dairy-free fettuccine Alfredo at the drop of a hat. If the ingredient you don’t like can’t easily be substituted out or removed, order something else.

Everyone’s tastes are different. I understand that. But I can’t really understand people who know they don’t like something and refuse to put in a little bit of effort to avoid it.