What Food Did You Find Disgusting until You Tried It?

When I was young I hated cheesecake. Not the actual dessert but the concept of my beloved cheese, which I considered a food to be paired with things that could be salted, with my beloved cake, which of course is delightfully sweet. There was no such trend called sweet and savory and most things in that vein did not appeal to me. Sweet and sour pork (nothing sweet upon my meat please) and even fruit with cottage cheese made me shiver with disgust.

Decades ago, at seventeen I began training to be a pastry chef at a busy Italian restaurant with cheesecake a prominent item on the menu. The first time I was in charge of making the cakes for the lunch service by myself I did not sample anything (ugh) and made them by my notes and by eye. Ignoring My father’s voice booming in my head about tasting everything… I prepared them for service and waited for the complaints to come rolling in. Worst hour of my working life. What happened was the complete opposite. So many compliments and words of praise. I thought someone had been watching me through the whole process and the staff was punking me. I had not tasted it so it must be as substandard as I suspected. So I tasted it.

My love affair with cheesecake continues.