Person: “Oh so you like cooking?”
Me: “Yeah, there’s something really satisfying about putting a good meal on the table for family & friends.”
Person: “What do you like to cook then?”
Me: “Oh, allsorts, I don’t have a massive repertoire but you know, risotto, casseroles & stews and I bake a bit of bread, that sort of thing.”
At this point, “Person” is engaging, interested in cooking and can feel a conversation coming on. He / she feels the bond that you have between you, the clattering of pans on the hob, the clunking of the knife through the herbs – you are as one in the culinary world.
Person: “Bread? Wow, I have always wanted to make my own bread, that’s cool.”
Me: “Oh it’s a doddle, honestly, and we make our own pizzas too.”
The conversation is over. KAPOW! as Batman might say (well, the jaunty angled colourful words did that job). All thoughts that “Person” had of you for your love of food have been wiped out with that one word… pizza. Pizza Hut you have a lot to answer for! Right now, Person is imagining me eating a giant slice of stodgy bread topped with 2kilos of yellow, oily cheese. Person now thinks my bread is the sort of thing a 6 year old comes home with in a tub from that day’s school baking session. Person changes the subject and scurries away. Game over, pizza boy, Person has left the building.
Aaaargh! If only they knew, and I still feel I’m on the lower rungs of the pizza ladder. There is much to learn young padawan, etc. etc. I wonder if Obi Wan could bake?
