Have you ever met someone who refuses to eat food that isn’t plain?

I’ve been friends with a guy for years who refuses to eat anything with any kinds of spices, dressings, or anything to liven up their meal.

Salad?

Plain, no dressing.

Burger?

Bun and patty only.

It’s insane to me!

But, to each their own, I guess…

In today’s story, a man explained how things got a bit complicated when he offered to cook for his wife’s family…and these folks aren’t what you’d refer to as adventurous eaters…

Read on and find out what happened!

AITA for seasoning the food I cooked?

“My wife’s family is the stereotypical “white family that doesn’t season food.”

For the record, I’m white too, so this isn’t a cultural thing.

My mother-in-law is incredibly kind and cooks dinner for us often since we live nearby. The only issue is that the food is usually very plain.

Are they living in the 1700s…?

Think Cornish hens with no seasoning, mashed potatoes that are literally just mashed potatoes with no butter, cream, sour cream, chives, or anything else mixed in, and thin well-done steaks that look like they came off one of those “$40 for 20 cuts of meat” truck sales.

Their family philosophy is that everyone seasons their own food after it’s on their plate. They’ll add Country Crock to the potatoes, salt and pepper, or dip meat into A1, ketchup, or BBQ sauce.

One time my mother-in-law was taking plain chicken breasts out to the grill, and I asked if I could season mine before it was cooked. She didn’t seem offended at all and let me.

Uh oh…

My wife, however, thought it was rude. My thinking was that seasoning belongs on the food before it’s cooked so it has a chance to develop flavor instead of just sitting on top afterward.

More recently, I offered to make BBQ wings for everyone. I seasoned the wings with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper, grilled them, tossed them in BBQ sauce, then put them back on the grill so the sauce caramelized onto the wings.

As I brought them inside, my brother-in-law had brought his own bottle of BBQ sauce. That immediately made me wonder if he had assumed I was making plain wings that everyone could sauce themselves.

Okay…

Out of roughly 50 wings for six adults, he ate maybe two, his wife had one, my father-in-law had three, and my mother-in-law didn’t have any. We took a ton of leftovers home.

On the drive home, my wife said she was surprised my wings weren’t more popular. I mentioned that maybe her brother expected plain wings because he brought his own BBQ sauce.

She got upset and asked why I had sauced everyone’s wings instead of leaving them plain. I said that if I invite people over for BBQ wings, I assume that means wings that are already coated in BBQ sauce, not plain wings with bottles of sauce on the table.

They’re really fighting about this, huh?

She disagreed and said I should have let everyone sauce them however they wanted.

She ended the conversation by saying I should probably just avoid cooking for her parents again because “clearly no one likes the way you cook.”

Was I actually in the wrong here? Should I have expected people to want plain wings with sauce on the side, or is it reasonable to assume BBQ wings are supposed to be cooked with the sauce already on them?”

Check out what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

This person weighed in.

Another individual said he’s NTA.

This Reddit user agreed.

This person shared their thoughts.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a single person who is dumbfounded when her friends insist couples count as one person when splitting a check.

And another reader had a different take…

Well, he gave it his best shot…

And it backfired on him!

Doh!

His wife’s family needs to lighten up a little bit and eat some decent food!