Serving dinner to guests with restricted diets
By Jessica Bruder, New York Times
No one would touch it.
The offending object? A footlong loaf of bread, stuffed with savory cheese, purchased at a beloved Italian bakery and presented with pride at a recent potluck meal. “This bread is delicious,” I crowed.
The kitchen went quiet. You’d think I had offered up a bouquet of poison ivy. One guest said she was gluten free. Another didn’t consume milk products. The mood lifted only when someone else arrived with a large bowl of quinoa and lentils.
It’s becoming harder for Americans to break bread together. Our appetites are stratified by an ever-widening array of restrictions: gluten free, vegan, sugar free, low fat, low sodium, no carb, no dairy, soyless, meatless, wheatless, macrobiotic, probiotic, antioxidant, sustainable, local and raw.
So familiar. When thinking of who to invite to dinner it doesn’t make sense to invite the paleos and the vegetarians, too bad they would have enjoyed having dinner together.
I guess that the concept of being gracious guests has gone the way of civil politics?