Picky eaters drive me nuts. There’re few things more frustrating than dining with a picky eater. Some restaurants don’t have food that they’ll eat, and that usually means one person will dictate where a group eats because they ‘don’t like’ whatever it is the group wants. Any shared dishes must be chosen to appease their picky palate. They don’t like broccoli, so this dish it out, or they don’t like tomatoes, so we’re not ordering that appetizer. There’s no telling the weird restrictions picky eaters will enforce. I’ve met people who don’t like potatoes of all things.
Cooking at home is the same. Picky eaters enforce lowest-common-denominator cooking and dictate what is made. Sometimes two separate meals need to be prepared, one for people that will eat whatever you put in front of them, and one for the picky eater. I find it to be unfair, and I understand it’s not intentionally so, but it’s selfish.
To be clear, I’m talking about those who “don’t like” and choose not to eat certain foods. Allergies are a different issue; dietary restrictions due to allergy are not made by choice.
There’s a great irony here. I was a picky eater.