Food for Thought 8/12/10
We were sharing a long communal table at a tiny Mexican restaurant near the beach. The Mexicans came to Long Island and made good. The food used to be cheap. $1 for a taco. Prices have gone up. It cost us about $15 each for lunch. Still a bargain. It was one of those situations where eavesdropping is expected. What I overheard was not. A couple of nice young women were chowing down, while leafing through a directory for the area; The Hamptons, famous for the famous. One of the girls was reciting from the tourist guide, “Personal gourmet chef for your dog.”
I cringed. I am a dog lover with 2 dogs who eat (brace yourself) dog food. “No!” I heard my own involuntary cry, as if my dog was stealing a T-bone from under my nose. “That can’t be true.”
In a time when people are jobless – nice, decent, hard-working people are showing up at food pantries to feed their families, let alone the nice, decent homeless who have no choice. I feel utterly embarrassed and disgusted with a system that has allowed, indeed encouraged this to happen.
I an sure many (can there be many?) who treat their dogs to personal chefs also give to the hungry. But honestly…I don’t know about your dogs, but I can tell you that my dogs will eat just about any crap they can sink their teeth into. And that’s no bullshit.
For the second time, I love your choice of pictures. Where do you find them? Anyway, I read your blog before I had to go mix the pasta and vegetables with the ground turkey for my dog(s). I knew that your comments were not aimed at home cooking ( I don’t hire a chef) or at home cooking for health reasons.
I had considered starting a dog home cooking and home delivery system ( ala the Zone Diet) and was pretty sure I would have a market for it. Where I live and in NYC there would be enough people that would want to have their cake and eat it too- by that I mean have the benefits of home cooking (no preservatives, salt or whatever else they may put in it) but not put in the effort of making it. I quickly gave up on the idea in that it would not be in the least bit satisfying to my soul.
I think Nancy’s point is well taken, that such a business can even exist is a little sickening. I obviously understand loving your pooch enough to take the time to cook for them but that is different than hiring someone to cook “gourmet” food.
Obviously the ones who use this service have different values than I hope most of us do and I for one feel sorry for them. They only know how to show love and care by buying it.
I like this blog. I will undoubtedly be peeping into it often.