If you don't cook, can you have an opinion about the food?

[Thurlow]

I might be being completely unreasonable here. Am girding for a potential flaming...

DP does 90% of the cooking. Much of this is because he enjoys cooking (he's a genuinely good cook, everything homemade from scratch) and enjoys eating nice food, whereas I'm not a particularly great cook and also have much less interest in food. But a large part of it is that he is the one at home in time to cook dinner, either getting home with DD about 4 or spending the day at home with her. I get home at 6.45 and do bathtime and bedtime while he's cooking dinner to be ready when I've got DD in bed. I cook sometimes - I can not murder a stew or bolognese at least - but even on the rare times when I'm at home and he's at work he'll offer to cook when he gets back.

Which is a waffly way of saying that a) most of the time it's more practical for him to cook, and b) he prefers eating his cooking to mind (and I really don't blame him )

Last night he made something slightly different. It was very nice. I thanked him for it (I promise I'm very good at thanking him for dinner!), he asked what I thought of the new thing, and I said it was very nice. Then I mentioned that I also like that thing done a slightly different way too. He seemed disappointed at this comment.

I didn't mean to criticise his cooking at all as it is always delicious and believe me, I am very grateful that I get most of my meals cooked for me, but I think that's how it might have come across to him! So - if you're not the one doing the cooking, for whatever reason, are you allowed to have an opinion on food or not?

(In the spirit of covering all potential bases the housework including cooking is shared pretty much 50/50 according to what it's easier or we prefer doing - he might do all the cooking, but I do most of the cleaning etc)

Of course you can. If you don't eat it, however, you can't.

Obviously, if you're not a cook yourself you wouldn't talk about cooking methods and techniques, but you know what you can taste and the texture of it.

After worrying about this, yesterday's dinner had... fries instead of wedges

wonders if I should just post the fact I've had chips two days in a row so the food police knocking around today can join in

Oh well, he might have sulked, but at least he was listening

There was nothing wrong with what you said. However, in that situation I probably wouldn't have said anything, but at another time said 'Could we please have fries one night soon'.

Just because if he cooks wedges all the time and tried a new kind, no matter how much you said you liked the new 'way', saying 'I like fries too' is really saying 'No matter what you do to them, I'm fed up of wedges, can't you cook fries??'

I know, I think that's how it came out too!

Though tbh, I am a little fed up with wedges...

I think that anyone eating the food is allowed a polite opinion!

I made macaroni cheese the other day for the first time in yonks. DD and her chum polished it off. DH had some when he got in. I asked what he thought. He said it was tasteless. He was right! I put in loads of mature cheddar too (made it with full fat milk which I think might have been an error as well)!