Who Made ME a Food Critic?

[trekflyer]

i'm sure plenty of you have had this same thing happen.... i'm no chef, but have a bit of restaurant experience and the general passion... my friends know this, my family, i've cooked for many of them and they know my abilities. What do you do when these people take it upon themselves to impress you with their cooking? it happens to me often... you're about to take that first bite and the cook's eyes are locked on to you, waiting to see your reaction... who made ME a food critic?!?! a real food critic isn't worried as much about hurting feelings, but this is family and friends. I'm a poor poor liar, and either way, i don't want to say that something is "great" if i'm not impressed.

my general system is to not say anything if the food is fine or bad even... and happily sometimes i'm surprised, and i definitely say that i like it very much....

how do you handle these situations... ?

[JeanneCake]

OMG I have the opposite happen. We get invited somewhere, everyone is bringing something and I really don't want to bring dessert; but no one else will bring dessert because they are afraid of making a dessert when there's a pastry chef on the guest list!!!

Sheesh.

Usually I just smile and ask them where they got the recipe and then comment on how I like that particular magazine or food page of the newspaper and say how I wanted to try it myself and start asking them about how they made it and pretty soon they're off on a different tangent.

[pastrygirl]

OMG I have the opposite happen.  We get invited somewhere, everyone is bringing something and I really don't want to bring dessert; but no one else will bring dessert because they are afraid of making a dessert when there's a pastry chef on the guest list!!!

Sheesh.

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Ha, I don't mind always bringing dessert, I accept the duty, what is funny is that my mother and only my mother refuses to let me bring anything for Thanksgiving or whatever holiday, but I wish she would let me help her out so she doesn't have to work so hard. My brothers, on the other hand, won't open the door until I promise I have sweets.

[turkeybone]

I have this kind of stuff happen now and then.. generally I make sure to leave a good impression when its presented, and then later on, after a few drinks or when the food is well digested, go back and make any commentary if theres some glaring pointer.