It’s rude to take one look at the dinner I have cooked then get lots of condiments for it.

[Wasail]

I spend time preparing a meal that is tasty and balanced, H takes one look at it, doesn’t taste it or anything, just gets his collection of condiments from the fridge and smothers his dinner.
We are talking things like truffle mayo ( he is a bit wanky with his condiment collection) so things that will fundamentally change the flavour of the meal. And no, I didn’t make fish and chips. ketchup or mayo, not both, would be acceptable in that case.
I think it’s unbelievably rude of him, he thinks it’s perfectly fine.

i add mayonaise to most a lot of dishes,
dh adds chilli sauce and salt

let it go op

I have an autocondimenter husband as well.
Never even tries it, just covers it in salt before he's even started.

It's because his tastebuds are shot from constantly over-salting his food - he needs to reset by having NO salt for a while until he can taste things again, but he won't.

I have known a few other people who do this too and I do find it a little rude - at least bloody TASTE the food before you chuck salt or other condiments all over it!

I agree with you OP.

I think it's incredibly rude.
Plus nothing needs truffle mayo, horseradish and chilli sauce together.
I am another who says hand over plain Pasta for dinner.. Surely if you add all that stuff all your food tastes the same in the end?

Have you seen the episode of Red Dwarf where Kryten cooks lobster thermidor and Lister asks for ketchup? Kryren's so angry his head explodes. Of course it's rude.

I'm sure I will get flamed for saying this but if you "can't taste it" or regard all subtle flavours as "bland" without chilli sauce/hot sauce/mustard/swathes of salt/pepper , i think you have conditioned your tastebuds this way. I can only assume it happens if you grow up being fed stuff constantly doused in condiments.

I think it's also habitual. My DH adds a lot of Worcester sauce on when I make a shepherds pie. I noticed this, and added loads the next time I cooked it. He added a load to it at the table anyway, without tasting it. It's like his taste buds expect it and ignore it.

To all the people saying "eh why not"... I would not want DH doing this in my house in front of the children, as they will start copying him! Lots of bottled condiment sauces are not very healthy, they are full of sugar and salt so i dont really want the children getting in to the habit of not tasting food served without them. They happily eat my food condiment free. It's not bland, I use garlic, herbs, plenty of spices etc.

My DH puts sweet chilli sauce on most things. I do most of the cooking and it doesn't bother me

DH adds mayo to everything. It's not a big deal at all. He just loves his mayo.
I don't see a problem here. Some people just love their condiments.

Maybe there are cultures where it’s acceptable to slosh condiments on meals that have been developed and cooked to have a certain flavour balance. There are also people who wouldn’t know flavour balance if it smacked them in the nose.

Most of us are thankfully able to appreciate someone else’s cooking efforts and eat what’s put in front of us, recognising that manners and the chance to educate our tastebuds might count for something.

I had a friend who’d grind over 5 rounds of pepper on anything I served him, before even tasting it. I am a died-in-the-wool foodie, who carefully researched, practiced and prepared those meals. He was a musician and composer. I told him one night I’d be bringing a kazoo to his gig, and chiming in when I thought his music needed ‘that little something’ in the way of improvement. Cos obviously improv was welcomed in the creative arts, cooking included. He got the message.

If he hadn’t got that message, he would find boiled potatoes on his plate until he did.

An ex never even looked at his dinner before fetching the butter, mayonnaise, ketchup, a block of cheese and pepper. He would then add 1-2 oz of pure butter, 7 tablespoons of mayo and 15 grinds of pepper and chop/mash the food into a greasy paste, squirt ketchup on and top with 250g of grated cheddar before picking up a spoon to shovel it in.

He always said it was his right to eat his food as he liked it. I agreed. So he now gets to do exactly that - in his own home, at his own cost and presumably with somebody who doesn't bat an eyelid at the cost of buying 4 packs of butter and a pound of top price cheddar every five days for him alone.

It was one of the reasons I dumped him. Especially the slurping and smacking noises.

Why are people comparing eating in the comfort of your own home to top class restaurants?
Having someone police how and what you eat in your own home is not nice. It should be a place to relax not feel watched/judged.

As long as they eat it, I couldn’t care less what they put on it. People’s taste buds do differ.

I put condiments on my own dinner when I've made it, am I intentionally insulting myself?🤭. I've only just discovered horseradish so love that at the moment but sweet chilli I got through phases, then satay sauce on anything for a while. We're all different, I'm terrible for salt too, but my partner doesn't add any to his meals. we're all different.

Yeah it is rude. He could at least taste it first before deciding that it won't be good enough.

DS16 does this with saracha sauce...even on a Sunday roast 😝

They don't ask if you'd like any sauces in 'proper' restaurants! Only in pubs and similar.

I like condiments and sauces, if I had a plain meal like chicken, potatoes and veg it would have to have a sauce or gravy. A salad would have to have blue cheese or ranch dressing, fish and chips has to have tartare, gammon and sweet corn needs salad cream.

There are 100s of different dressings and sauces and I have a large amount of them, at least one is used on most meals unless they are already very “saucey”, I go like apple sauce and cranberry with my gravy dinners though.

Depends on what it is, apple sauce with pork for instance is normal. I put gravy on meals if they are dry

Do people really care about stuff like this? It’s food. To be eaten. Condiments or not.

I put an assortment of condiments on absolutely everything I eat, pretty much. And What.

It is rude and unhealthy!
I wouldn't be impressed at all if my husband did this. I don't think he'd be v happy if I did that.
It is also a very unhealthy habit. Anyone needing various sauces every day to add to their meals must have got pretty knackered tastebuds and are probably not in great health when it comes to salt and sugar levels.

My dh does this too, he has about 4 sauces on his plate for pretty much every meal including curry. Never over the food though. His business imo

My husband covers pretty much everything I cook with those ridiculous chilli sauces that have names like XXX AssTingler etc.

I think he has just burnt off his taste buds and that is all he can taste now

Habit, maybe he had to disguise his mums cooking, I know for sure that’s the case of my DH! Really annoys me if I’ve spent time cooking to be smothered in brown sauce, my DH no longer does it unless the dinner is appropriate for a condiment.

Tasty and condiment requiring are in the eye of the beholder. YABU.

As Lenny Henry says:

www.facebook.com/Gianfranco.Chiarini/videos/10152997535460382/