Why does food (and especially a sandwich!) always taste better when someone else makes it? My mother makes a simple but delicious sandwich every day for lunch. Always the same, she slices good hearth bread, slathers it with Hellman's Best Mayo on both slices, adds a few squares of Swiss cheese and piles on several leaves of crunchy lettuce or occasionally baby spinach. On goes the top, and with a slice down the middle, there it is — the perfect sandwich. Whenever I visit her, I look forward to lunchtime when I can share in her delicious daily ritual. So why doesn't the sandwich taste as good when I make it at home?
I use all the same ingredients, slathering on the mayo with as much abandon, cutting it at the same angle. And yet, when I take a bite of my self-made sandwich, it's just not as good. I think there are three reasons for this.
The first is that in general, food prepared by other people always tastes better. This is why one can be an excellent home cook but still enjoy eating out. Having someone else take on the labor and love of preparing a meal is a real treat and definitely 'seasons the sauce.'
Similarly, sometimes when I cook, by the time I sit down to eat my dish I'm kind of done with it. Between tasting it for seasonings and doneness and inhaling all the aromas of cooking, I don't get that clean, first-bite thrill when I actually eat it. There are no surprises in flavor or texture. So while I can be satisfied that it tastes good or even great, it's more of a confirmation than a discovery. (This explanation works for complex cooked dishes but perhaps not for a simple sandwich.)
Finally, the main reason why I think my mother's sandwich tastes better is quite simply because my mother made it. A sandwich is a classic made-by-mom treat and even when as an adult, there's still something special about eating a sandwich made by your mother. In this case, the sauce is being seasoned by love or at least it's that way with my mum!
Related: 10 Things I Love From My Mother's Kitchen
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"...by the time I sit down to eat my dish I'm kind of done with it. Between tasting it for seasonings and doneness and inhaling all the aromas of cooking, I don't get that clean, first-bite thrill when I actually eat it."
THIS. Precisely. It's also why I usually can't stomach my own leftovers (even when the meal was great).
I've always said sandwiches and salads always taste better when someone else makes them.
I also feel like when I cook, I've tasted it along the way for seasoning or to make sure it's right, and by the time I sit down to eat it, I'm not hungry anymore.
On an unrelated note, I LOVE the pic with this posting. The woman and the kitchen are both absolutely great! So adorable! Was this in someone's family's photo album or something?
I think this is one more reason why eating at home doesn't make you as fat as eating out - for both the cook and the residents who have smelled dinner being made, the taste novelty is already gone when they take the first bite (especially for the cook). At a restaurant, they park a calorie-salt-fat laden dish in front of you and it tastes so good you eat all of it, in part because of the new-ness of the taste.
I never eat much after I've cooked a huge dinner because I just "ate" it through my nose for the past hour or two. And no, I rarely take more than a small taste as I cook.
Food tastes better when I make it. ;-)
mom's cooking is always the best!!!
I'm with Anita. I like my food best especially if I spend a long time making it. I feel like I earned it and it satisfies me more.
Yeah, it really depends on who the someone else is and how good a cook they are. Often mine tastes better, even to me.
My sister makes some killer sandwiches ! Her eggplant lasagna is also awesome btw. I'm honestly a much better cook and baker than her, she's not pasionnate about it, and well, I am, but seriously her sandwiches are and will always be better than mine !!!
Two things:
1. I'm another one who likes my own cooking! But:
a. I agree that sometimes I am kinda done with it by the time it gets to the table, and
b. when someone serves something that I don't make, and it tastes really awesome, like when I go to someone's house for lunch (a meal I usually don't make a big deal of when I'm by myself) and that person happens to be a great cook, there's nothing better.
2. I also love the above photo! That woman and that kitchen are fabulous! Who is she???
I go back and forth with this. When it's a recipe I'm trying for the first time that turns out well, or something I've been working to perfect for a while, I still find it to be awesome and feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm also a much better cook than many of the restaurants I find myself eating at out of convenience (and I don't eat "fast" food), which is a huge disappointment.
For me it's often because the act of eating someone elses food comes with indulgence. I don't keep mayo in the house, so a sandwich at my moms is decadent with it. I avoid pasta, but won't say no to it at a friends. These things feel illicit and are thus yummier :)
I really enjoy trying new techniques and ingredients when I cook. I get a rush out of it. So while I enjoy my mom's cooking, her traditional family meals are kind of boring to me to make. When she makes it, I'm happy to eat her baked mac and cheese with smoked gouda, or her beef tenderloin with fettuccine and hollandaise. They're delicious.
But since they're so familiar, they just aren't interesting to me to cook, therefore I just don't derive the same kind of pleasure from them as when she makes them.
It's funny because the opposite is true, too. I know, for example, that my mom is perfectly capable of making my mango salsa recipe, but she's always excited when I make it and insists that it tastes better.
I believe that you can taste love in food. Sounds sappy but I think that's the reason why some dishes made by other people (like Mom) tastes so good.
Since getting a house with my fiancee, we have been practicing the "fly by the seat of your pants" method of cooking.
Each of us has had one major failure, but then, it's a learning process, right?
We also are our own worst critics.
I claim her food is better than mine, and she claims mine is better than hers.
Because of the reasons above - we've already immersed ourselves in what we're cooking for the other, it's lost its appeal as a delicious meal by the time it's on the table.
I ALWAYS enjoy eating, no matter who makes the food! And I love leftovers, they are sometimes better the next day.
I enjoy my own cooking more than most meals I eat outside of home. I find most restaurant food doesn't stand out that much, unless it's a really good restaurant.
I do find my mom's cooking is the best, I think because of the memories it brings. And alos because my mom is a great cook.
I think it's because I always find something wrong with my own cooking :(
It's the care and love floating along with the plate holding the sandwich being placed down in front of you...
I know that this is a common sentiment, but I actually think that most foods and dishes (and especially sandwiches) taste better when I make them- as I know exactly what I like and want, and probably because I am so culinary minded, I usually have a very particular and specific idea of what I am looking for. There are a few exceptions- a few standout dishes at restaurants that i would never dare to recreate, and few dishes that other family members always seem to make better, but I am generally most satisfied with something when I've cooked it myself.
I love my leftovers! I'm no longer full from tasting, and I can pretend someone who loves me made it for me. And someone did! ME! (although the food I make tastes best when I make it for OTHER people I love, like family and friends)
Yes, food invariably tastes better when someone else has cooked for me! With myself, I tend to be hyper critical.
My boyfriend and I like to refer to "our favorite meal" which is any meal we did not have to prepare. If he cooks, no matter what it is, he's made my favorite meal and vice versa.
It's been scientifically proven that when preparing food, we get used to the aroma, thus diminishing its taste somewhat. Food prepared by someone else seems to taste better because you've just been introduced to the food and its aroma.