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Everyone loves my cooking. The only person that used to complain about it was my former husband. That's why I dumped him!

My FIL. He doesn't complain about my cooking per se, he just rarely likes anything, or so it seems. Things I know for sure he likes are:

*green salad, but without dressing because he "hates" vinegar. The funny thing is, he eats store-bought dressing (that has vinegar in it). And if I didn't say that there was vinegar in it, he'd eat it and not even realise it's there - his palate is odd, he may call something spicy "sour", for instance. But my MIL has a very annoying habit of asking, "what's in it?" at dinner, which gives my FIL an opportunity to say that he "hates all of it". And I can't lie, even though I'm very tempted to at times.

*shrimp cocktail (no reservations here)

*ribs - he loves them, but only when my MIL is not around. Otherwise, he'd say they are "not good for you". Which was what he said when we told them that OH won a D'Artagnan ham. Funny, cheese doodles and those sweet tablets that are pure sugar (argh, I know their name but am drawing a complete blank here) are apparently very good for you, because he has plenty of both in his car at any time.

No matter what he eats, it always feels like he does not enjoy his food. Although if we dine out, there is a bigger chance for him to say, 'it's very good" than when he has dinner at our place. He's also the same person who has a fit if his meat is not well done, and I mean a real, 12-year-old's fit that until I met him, I'd only observe at shopping malls. The moment he notices that his meat is slightly red inside, he screams "it's bloody" and you just wish you could simply disappear into thin air, even though you're in a restaurant and you didn't cook the bloody thing (pun not intended). And if someone had a misfortune to suggest he take something else, he starts yelling "I don't want to!" (many times), and since you haven't been able to master a disappearing act by then, you seriously wish you took some lessons from Houdini. I'm only glad I've never cooked a steak for him, nor do I ever intend to.

I'm not entirely brokenhearted over the fact that he obviously doesn't like my food. But it's still unpleasant to have him over for dinner, and I wish there was a way for me to not ever invite them, because I usually just feel like crying afterwords, regardless. Unless I serve green salad and shrimp cocktail.

@brooke
Holy moley, my Dad has a seperated at birth brother! I mean, the tantrums over food-OMG, have I been there wishing to disappear. I remember one time I baked a rye bread and he not only wouldn't eat it, but went to the store and bought a Beefsteak bread to my house to show me "real" rye bread-after spending a couple days insulting my cooking. He would invite himself for every holiday and then sit there complaining about the food and refuse to eat it. I think the only way we could have pleased him would be to serve hot dogs and coke for Thanksgiving. He was really something.

Don't let your FIL pull that nonsense with you. I regret all the years I put up with it from my old man. Just give him a phone book and tell him to order something that better suits his tastes and let it be. People like that-I don't know. It's a meal for heaven's sake. They act like the world will come crashing to an end if they have to eat something they don't care for. It isn't about food, it's about manners (or lack of) and getting the better of people.
Agh. I'm so sorry you have to put up with that.

@Goodythecook - thank you so much for your kind words, somehow knowing that my FIL is not the only one like this makes me feel slightly better.

@dhorst - this may be the best gift I've ever gotten!:-)

My ex had me convinced I knew nothing about cooking. After we separated was when my kids and such told me they were too afraid of her to say otherwise. Now it's my kids who ask for special dishes, which is great.

If my inlaws came over unexpectedly and I served them an everyday meal, they'd probably hate it. We eat a lot of spicy foods, particularly Mexican, and a lot of different other ethnic foods, depending on my mood. And I use a lot of ingredients they don't like. Luckily for them and us, they don't stop by uninvited at mealtime.

However, when they're coming for dinner, I tone down the onions and garlic, I don't make anything ethic or spicy, and I make sure that everything (or almost everything) is on their list of approved foods. Now and then I serve an alternate vegetable that my husband and I like, but I always make sure that there's one that they'll eat.

So they say that they like my cooking, but in truth, they only like a small portion of it.

Once or twice, I've gotten the response "blegh, that's too fancy!" Seriously? Chicken Piccata is too fancy?

Step-mom likes to cook, but has no innate sense of timing. Nothing she makes is ever truly bad, but often there are elements that are overcooked. So I eat it, tell her it's delicious, and thank her. Yeah, it's mushy, but you can totally taste the love that was put into it.

I'm Italian, and I married into a Guyanese family -- with the exception of my husband, my in-laws are not fond of "red sauce" or any of the typical pasta dishes that grace our table several times a week. They also are very insistant on always having a "MEAT" portion of the meal. They never can understand how I could serve them pasta without meat...they're always poking around looking for it. I've given up trying to win them over to Italian food...so I save those specialties for my hubby and kids, and stick with rice and meat dishes for the in-laws. It's not that they don't like my cooking, they just don't like Italian cuisine. Otherwise, they say everything I make is yummy...

My mother's family, for years, hated my food. Every family gathering, I'd bring something "weird" (couscous salads, green bean casserole made completely from scratch), and it wouldn't go over well. They're a very ... proletariat ... kind of people when it comes to food.

Right before I got married, I catered my own bridal shower, and nearly everything was made from scratch. Between that and my mother raving about every meal I made for her, they finally figured out that I am perfectly capable of cooking excellent food.

Now, I just can't wait until it's my turn to host Thanksgiving, and I get to roast a turkey like they've never had before.

One of my co-workers who only eats poached chicken, steamed vegies and adds no salt - or anything else for that matter - I show her recipes or bring things in and she makes the most crazy faces of disgust.
When we take a client out to work, she squirms in her seat.
It's kind of sad but she just doesn't want to taste anything new or different. I have no comprehension of this.

Just a note: My mother told me when my dad and her first were married before moving to the states and they were living in a flat on the 3rd floor in Saltzburg my mother made a batch of apple stuedel for him and he said that it was good but not as good as his mother's and my mother got so mad she tossed the whole platter of them out the window, lets just say he never commented about anything again. As for me my mother liked my cooking but at home I tend to love VERY spicey foods and my mother does not, she loves bland stuff, but I think it was psych. because she would sit at the table and watch me cook and then see grabbing the hot sauce and start to nag about that. When she was not looking or out of the room and put it in she never could tell the difference.

i used to have a very dear friend of the opposite sex who adored my cooking. then we started dating and he complained that my cooking gave him heartburn. i quickly realized that he was the type of person who once he got what he wanted, he didn't want it anymore, so i dumped him.

@akk328 - he's actually a CPA, but I think you may be on to something with the control thing...Oddly enough, my MIL hates (or should I say, despises?) cooking as well. To her, it's just never worth the time and the effort - "why cook soup at home when Progresso makes those fantastic 100-calories-a-serving ones?". The "food is love" concept is definitely lost on her, she mostly goes by "food is an evil necessity". But even though she does her best not to eat in general, she, amazingly, does love my cooking - in fact, the most I've ever seen her eat was in my house, which, I reckon, is quite a compliment:-).

@HeartofGlass: the end your last comment is absolutely correct. And loving them is more important than trying to change them.

To all of you who keep trying to win over your [fill in the blank] with your cooking: Just stop. You'll never win this power struggle -- they've played it a lot longer than you have. And if they're no longer a part of your life, let it go.

My MIL hated anything spicy (= more than just a little black pepper, although garlic was okay) and was deathly afraid of salt. So when I cooked for her and my FIL, I kept it bland instead of cooking the things I liked or the things I made first in culinary school and later at work. Was I happy eating what I made for them? Hell, no, but *they* were, and that was all that mattered.

@HeartofGlass, 40 minute hard boiled eggs?? Wow, sorry, but I find that fascinating. I'm trying to imagine the color of the yolks and well just the overall texture of the eggs.

Well, after tonight's dinner I found out that there is something else I make that my FIL absolutely loves - latkes! Woohoo! It was actually really funny - we had plenty of food, 2 different kinds of latkes, all kinds of greens, salads, brisket, but all he ate was just plain old potato latkes (no sour cream, no homemade apple sauce, no homemade gravlax). The funniest moment was when dessert time came, and he said, very nonchalantly, not looking at anyone in particular, "I think I could use a couple more latkes" (it's good that I made a quadruple batch). He was the happiest I've ever seen him at the dinner table (and probably the least stressful dinner with him present)! I told my OH that from now on, no matter what the occasion is, I'm always serving latkes when we have them over for dinner:-).

@ag, as people get older, the gradually lose their sense of taste, and sweet is the last to go, which is why sometimes older folks will complain that nothing tasts as good as it used to, but they'll still like sweets. Maybe something like that is going on with grandma, but she's objecting to the sweet flavor instead of looking for more desserts.

Or maybe it just gives her something to complain about.