Etiquette 101

The Place: Florida
The Time: 2006

I was a young thing, out of college and starting life anew in the brave new world of the east coast.  I had tons of free time and an unquenchable love of desserts.  I also had an unquenchable love of not growing to grotesquely large proportions.  I made several cakes and then brought them in to work, to share the bounty (and the calories).  Here are the reactions that I received.

Person 1: “Oh.” (person grabs cake and eats, no comment offered)
Person 2: “Why isn’t it chocolate?”
Person 3: “I don’t like coconut”
Person 4: “Does it have chocolate?”
Me:(never brought food into that office again)

Not a single person said “thank you.”

The Place: San Francisco
The Time: 2010

A coworker made a large batch of chocolate chip cookies.  She brought them into work and left them on the table in the break room with the qualifier that they were potentially overcooked (it was written on a post-it note).  The next time she returned to the table, the cookies were gone and there was a new post-it note.

“They are also too salty.”

The Place: San Francisco
The Time: 2010

The holidays are a busy time for me since I’m baking snickerdoodles for all my family and friends so it doesn’t help that some of my friends have birthdays right around Christmas which means making something a little extra because I would hate having my birthday and Christmas lumped together. So I make one my friends cupcakes in addition to the snickerdoodles for Christmas. The response....

“The cupcakes were dry and not up to the standard I have for you and the frosting wasn’t whipped enough”


The Place: San Francisco
The Time: 2011

It was Valentines Day and red velvet anything is a common theme during this holiday so I decide to make red velvet cupcakes and give them to all my friends because you know, I am lacking a valentine of my own lol My mom asks if she can take some to work to share with her coworkers and of course I say yes because as always, I make way too much of everything and I’m always scrambling to find people to give stuff to. Next thing I know, I receive an email from one of her coworkers with an attachment to an article listing the “requirements” of red velvet with the implication that I had made red velvet incorrectly.

A- At the end of the day, what irritates me the most is that these people who don’t know how to bake anything and who would probably burn down the kitchen if they tried to bake are one, not thankful that I took the time to bake them something and two, criticize me about my baking. Don’t you think I’ve tasted it before I gave it to you? I would never give anything to anyone that was sub-par. And they dare ask me why I don’t give them anything anymore...

C- Exactly.  I put a lot of time and money into baking things for people.  And I taste-test.  Nothing that’s actually bad makes it into work.  They don’t have to like the food, but they should accept it and not criticize it.  Also, not do what my boss did yesterday and say “Eh, it’s pretty good.”  

Just a note, to those of you who receive free food from others: Accept it with a smile on your face and tell them that it’s awesome unless you have some sort of food allergy.  If you don’t want to actually eat it, throw it away later.