Ever feel like a snob...

[PastaKing]

Do you ever feel like a snob when a friend invites you over for dinner? We have these friends who can't cook. They invite my wife and I over for diner, but it's always boxed food, or out of a microwave, or worse, jar pasta sauce or jar Alfrado sauce. This one time they tried to cook chicken but it was so dry!

They are coming over tomorrow for dinner. I can't help but think now they feel like they need to have US over.


I feel like such a snob. I talk to my wife about it, but she just laughs.
You guys ever feel this way?

[MexicoKaren]

I don't know that I would call it snobbery, but it amazes me how many of my women friends do not cook. Let me add that I am of retirement age, and many of my female contemporaries burned their cookbooks along with their bras in the 70s. They came of age somehow believing that learning to cook was giving in to some male chauvinist plot. NOT - learning to cook is a prerequisite for EATING. (Let me also add that I am proud to call myself a feminist, and I spent my pre-retirement life in a high-powered profession.) But I love to eat, and I love to cook. Most of our friends eat out several times a week because they simply can't cook. They enjoy coming over to our house to eat because it is usually the best food they have eaten in awhile. I guess I do sound a little like a snob after all...oops.

[Maverick2272]

I don't think it is being a snob, if the food aint good then it just aint good. But maybe another angle might be to suggest a group cooking situation where you all get together and cook the meal together.
This way you might 'teach' them a thing or two about cooking hopefully, which in turn might improve their food and get them more enthusiastic about cooking.

[PastaKing]

Originally Posted by Maverick2272

I don't think it is being a snob, if the food aint good then it just aint good. But maybe another angle might be to suggest a group cooking situation where you all get together and cook the meal together.
This way you might 'teach' them a thing or two about cooking hopefully, which in turn might improve their food and get them more enthusiastic about cooking.

Good idea, but when I cook, I cook alone. That is MY area, and I don't teach unless they ask.

gee......I AM a snob

[Fisher's Mom]

Sadly, until this last year, I was the friend who couldn't cook. But at least I knew it and generally, if I had people to dinner I would pick up the main course from a restaurant and supplement with fresh fruits, salads and the like (stuff I couldn't screw up). I also have some friends who I had a great arrangement with - I would buy the food (whatever they specified), they would cook, and I would do all the clean up. It worked great and happily, now I can even cook for them.

[Barbara L]

One of my friends can't cook, and when we have eaten at her house (generally boxed stuff), she is so apologetic the whole time that I just appreciate the effort she does make. And when I go home I thank God that my mom was a great cook and taught me how.

Barbara

[Fisher's Mom]

Originally Posted by Barbara L

One of my friends can't cook, and when we have eaten at her house (generally boxed stuff), she is so apologetic the whole time that I just appreciate the effort she does make. And when I go home I thank God that my mom was a great cook and taught me how.

Barbara

I knew I liked you, Barbara!

[miniman]

This is why I enjoy the cooking lessons I do for teenagers. My major aim is that they are equipped to go out on their own and at least have a basic knowledge of cooking. Especially when they are students & young adults on a tight budget.

I go out to friends as much for the company as anything else. The food may not be great but the company is. We also have a reputation for our meals so no one turns down an invite from us.

[Claire]

Oh, yes. Most of my friends love to cook, but occasionally I have been invited to dinner as you describe. Now I have to tell you, I'm a big believer in short cuts when they are available. I cannot pretend to make everything from scratch. But mostly I feel sorry for those I know who only can open a can and can't quite figure out a new microwave oven (hey, I just bought a new one and am learnin different times myself).

I really pity people who cannot take care of themselves, be it cooking a decent meal, sewing on a button, or for pity's sake, bathing any thing in their house (to include your own body, your spouse's when you get that old, your dogs and cats)

[auntdot]

Gosh PK, you have opened up a can of worms for me.

Toss any of us into a wilderness and the two things we will try to find are shelter and food. Those are the fundamental issues of life.

Cooking, and eating meals together, as a family or group, was a custom until recently.

My sister and I were not taught to cook, we learned from watching Mom and Pop.

Now there is day care and places like that.

And Mom and Dad bring in take out.

How children today can learn the most basic of survival skills, i.e. cooking, I have no idea.

I hope I am over reacting.