Who has cooked food and looks so good on the face but the taste is disaster? I once did that to a large group of guests, and I choose not to taste the food because I was so sure of the cooking arrangement. That day, yet to take my bath in the early morning, it was my ethos not to taste anything called food until I brushed and had shower in the morning.
The menu that fateful morning was boiled yam and fried egg. I use spice just like the Chinese when doing my fried egg. Yam was perfectly boiled and good to go. I took my time and added some cayenne pepper, sardine, sesame oil, onions, blended pepper and tomatoes, thyme and magi cubes. It was going to be luscious super. However it was disaster, all other ingredients and spices were good but the egg was spoilt. When I cracked the egg, I did not notice any unfamiliar smell, neither was the yoke out of order. My greatest undoing was I took the time to carefully prepare the meal for the guests without tasting the dishes.
Food is done, break is fast, and the guests are set. The guest were friends from my alma mater. They were about 12 in number. The look on their face was bemusing and skeptical. They look like they laboring to eat and were forced to dine. In such setting, I registered they were only trying to be courteous and non-critical. In a fist of discontentment, one of the guests busted out ‘this fried egg is sham’. The other guests who have been looking for a forerunner to break the golden silence and broadcast the bad news unanimously chorused in Pidgin English ‘Abro, this food no be am’ (meaning ‘Abraham, this food is awful).
I deflected in shame and blame myself for my own un-doing. I did not taste the food during the cooking process and also before serving the dish. I messed up in front of the public. Later, I tasted it and I could not even feel sorrier for myself. I was laughing at my ineptitude, insensitivity and kitchen failure. Since then, I taste my food when cooking or ask another person to taste- I taste for spice, salt level, how done and water content. It has helped me to avert some embarrassment, the disadvantage in this is – if you are that hungry, you may finish the whole food while cooking, all in the sake of ‘tasting’. On the other end, one of the good thing about checking your meal is when food is cooking, the salt level, spice taste, and water content can be reviewed, monitored closely and modify to suit purpose.
Be the king’s taster, like in medieval ages and even currently in some settings, a person taste all the food before the King is allowed to eat. The culture was more popular in old Egyptian and Roman Empire, and taster were also called King’s cupbearer in some provinces. This is to check that the food meets royal standard and also there is no food poisoning. The duty of the “taster” was to eat some of the food prepared for the king and if the taster died, then the king would know that he needed to order something different off the menu
Before you cause your guests food poisoning or stomach flu, taste the food first. Even when you know that all the condiments are within their past use date, it just that some don’t go along with one another. Some ingredients are counter-productive such as soda and vinegar, herbs and grape juice, mango and cassava flakes (garrri), orange juice and milk or ginseng and coffee. Be the King’s taster! Not literally taste the king… magic fail! But taste the food of the king. Anyway, you are a royalty in your own setting, you’re not just the Queen of England **winks**