A Cook's Dilemma
What to cook when you have guests? I always feel like I'm walking on eggshells when I have to prepare a dinner party for new friends or people I don't know well.
Others can't stand a particular vegetable. And even puddings have their critics. Attitudes towards food can be formed during childhood and have an effect on the rest of their lives.
President George Bush senior, for example, banned broccoli aboard the presidential plane, Air Force One. "I do not like broccoli!" the President said in 1990. "And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!"
Dr Emma Uprichard from the Oxford University published a study on food hates. They don't like milk puddings-semolina and rice pudding-often associated with school dinners of the 50s and 60s.
But it's not only bad memories that make us turn our noses up at certain foods. There are biological reasons too. Scientists researching human bodies say there are various groups of "tasters". I always keep my fingers crossed that none of my dinner party guests are in this group.
The British don't eat horse meat. Brazilians like a black bean stew with pork which, in the experience of a Brazilian cooking for friends here in London, isn't popular with Kurdish people. Sometimes I think the life of a host would be easier if we could just serve everybody a simple omelet, seasoned with love and friendship.
A. And food is about cultural diversity too.
B. Some eaters are picky and don't like cheese.
C. It can be hard to decide which foods to prepare in a party.
D. It showed common categories in the foods British people reject.
E. We should approach food as a source of much more than nutrition.
F. The one they call" super tasters" are more likely to hate bitter foods.
G. It left a bitter taste in the mouth of the American farmers who produced the vegetable.
