Source: Reddit
I (31M) am a classically-trained French chef. I have spent the last 11 years training and cooking in restaurants in France and am an American citizen. I met my wife (26F) 5 years ago when she was on vacation in France, we fell in love and she lived with me in France. When we decided wanted to start a family, she expressed a desire to move back to her hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah in the USA so we can be closer to her family. We have made the move as of last week.
When we made the official move into our house, moving in some furniture from France and some bought furniture states side, we had a bunch of neighbors come out and help us. What was expected to take 4 or 5 hours of moving in and arranging and putting away ended up taking 2 hours as suddenly 15 people came over to help, with snacks and drinks and advice about the home and neighbourhood. I was so grateful and surprised at this kindness, so I offered to cook them all a grand meal 3 days later. Some turned the offer down because of their kids or schedule, others because “Helping neighbors move in is just the Mormon thing to do.”
I ended up cooking a 4-course French dinner for 3 other couples. They all absolutely loved my entree of Gigot qui Pleure with a pan sauce, some even asking for seconds of it. I ended up making copies of the recipe for them as a final thank you since they loved it so much. When I gave them the recipes they looked absolutely shocked, they didn’t realize the pan sauce had red wine in it and they are not allowed to consume alcohol because they are Mormons. They ended up getting very angry at me, saying I am trying to corrupt them with alcohol and that I should respect other people’s beliefs and dietary restrictions. My wife is very upset and feels like I ruined our first chance at making friends in our new neighbourhood.
People I have talked to about this have been very split about if I am an a****ole or not. Some say I should have studied up on Mormon dietary restrictions and modified my recipes to match, while others have said that as the people with the dietary restrictions, they should have mentioned them well before the preparation of the meal to make sure those restrictions are met, just like someone with an allergy would mention it.
So people which side are you on? Am I A Jerk? Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
