Emma’s food annoyances: sprinkling pepper and salt straight away
I eat often, a lot and with great pleasure, and then I quite regularly notice things. Often these are positive things, but it also frequently happens that something irritates me immensely. Whether that’s justified or not, sometimes I just need to vent. That’s why there’s the Emma’s food annoyances column, with another etiquette issue this week: sprinkling pepper and salt straight away.
You’ve spent hours slaving away in the kitchen. Your dish has exactly the right balance between sour, sweet and salt. Proudly, you put it in front of your guests, who then attack it with the pepper and salt mills like a raging bull. Um, hello. Why don’t you taste it first?
An insult to the chef
Putting pepper and salt on your food before tasting it is absolutely not according to etiquette. It would be an insult to the chef. If you think about it, it’s actually the exact opposite of an insult. The fact that they haven’t tasted it yet means they do this everywhere and are therefore used to insanely salty food. Still, it does feel a little like that.
I do my best to make my food as delicious as possible, and I really do pay attention to how much pepper and salt I add. I already cook with fairly intense flavours, so dumping a whole mountain of salt on top seems like the opposite of delicious to me. Of course, it’s a matter of taste, but how can you know what something tastes like if you haven’t tasted it yet? Whether it’s polite or not, it simply makes no sense. Maybe the food is already exactly how you like it and you’re ruining it. I actually think it’s just as stupid as automatically eating ketchup with everything.
Parma ham with salt
Recently, I went out for pizza with a friend. Before her Parma ham pizza was even on the table, she reached for the salt and pepper, both of which were sprinkled over her pizza in generous quantities. Over her Parma ham pizza! Who puts salt on Parma ham?! When we swapped a piece of pizza, I almost felt sick because it was so salty. Do these people have numbed taste buds or something?
Stop it
This is a call to all my friends who recognise themselves in this story. Have I cooked for you? Take a bite first before seasoning the whole thing. There’s a good chance it’s already tasty enough.
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