Why is ts considered rude to ask for salt and pepper at a restaurant?

Question

is this really just an American habit? My husband is from a different country and he says that only we(here in America) request salt and pepper before even tasting the food at a restaurant and that this is very rude.

Answer 1

It is considered rude to some people because you are essentially saying that the food has no flavor and that is why you need the salt and pepper. however, I don't think it's rude because I really like pepper on my mashed potatoes so I ALWAYS put pepper on them. some people think it's rude others don't.

Answer 2

you should at least taste the food first..lol   but i don't think its rude because it should be on the table anyway!

Answer 3

I shouldn't have to ask for it, it should already be on the table.  If it's not, I will ask so it's there if I decide I should need it.  I don't USE it before tasting the food, that would be ridiculous.

Answer 4

Yes, it means you don't have faith in the cooks expertise. Not tasting the food before asking for salt and pepper means you assume the food is bland. Chefs take great care to cook good food and you usually do not need to add salt or pepper to make the food taste better.

Answer 5

supposedly it insults the chef... whatever.

Answer 6

Only if you don't ask for the ketchup also.....

Answer 7

It's not rude to ask for it. But it is rude to salt and pepper your food without even tasting it first. The chef could have used white pepper which is virtually invisible and you could over-pepper your food, rendering it really bad. The same for salt - it's invisible so you have no way of knowing if it needs more salt unless you taste it first.

Answer 8

It is considered rude because it's an insult to the chef. I'm told this is especially true in the french speaking countries. The french do have wonderful food.

Best wishes.

Answer 9

It offends people of other cultures.  There are many things that we do that offend people of other cultures.



Some people will go to a restaurant of another culture or a really ritzy American restaurant and order a hamburger and french fries.

  

It's considered tacky but many of us are afraid to try things that are new to us.

Answer 10

My ex was a chef. He told me that it's rude to ask for salt and pepper before you have tasted the meal. It's like assuming that the dish will be bland so yes, it is perceived as an insult.

If it's a fine dining restaurant the salt and pepper will not be on the table.

Answer 11

Well, it offend the chef.  My grandparents own a restaurant.  A guy ordered a Steak Diane... then asked for ketchup.  My grandmother needed to be physically restrained from throwing the guy out of her restaurant.  Steak Diane already is drowning in sauce...  ketchup ruins the whole thing!  She spends hours making that sauce... so when he ordered ketchup, well, she took it very personally.

Same goes with salt and pepper.

My husband is foreign, too.  I'm a food masher.  Yes, I like to mix my pees into my mashed potatoes.  If you give me a pot pie, I will stir it up into goo before I eat it.  My husband insists that this is barbaric.  He, on the other hand, eats every food item on his plate clockwise without letting the different foods touch at all.  Freak.  I also like to stir my ice cream until it is soup.  He finds this highly offensive.  I smirk.  He complains...  I don't do these things around his family.  I don't do it in public.... but he's gotta let me do my thing at home.  I'm less likely to behave badly if he lets me have my outlet...  which, conversely, is why one room in the house is painted insane colors with bizarre things on the walls....  but that is another story.

Do what I do.  Hide all your little quirks in your purse.  When I know it's going to be "rude" to ask for something, I bring it in my purse. Salt and pepper, sugar packets, etc. Shhhhhhh!!!!  They never have to know!