Can you trick your FOODience?

Let me preface this post with two important points.

1. The title of this post is not a question of ethics.
2. FOODience is a word I made up, and it means "those you're cooking for". Get it? Food+audience?

Now that you know what a FOODience is, and more importantly that I'm not in any way trying to encourage trickery, the question I'm here to tackle is if you prepare food in a way your FOODience may not be used to, will they ever know unless you tell them? I don't have any concrete data to go one way or the other but I do have some anecdotal evidence I'd like to share.

First, I introduced my mom to a quinoa based pasta this summer and she knew it was gluten free because I told her, but her experience with gluten free pasta was very limited and she had no idea what to expect. She knew I liked this one though. Like most gluten free pastas, the one from Ancient Harvest takes longer to cook than traditional pastas (and longer than package directions) but the end result tasted identical to traditional pasta, and my mom said she wouldn't have ever known it was  not traditional pasta unless I told her.

More recently, and even more interesting, I made a zucchini cake to surprise some people with whom I always have a fun time. Only one of them knew I'd be bringing in food (but she didn't know what I was going to bring until I brought it). When they saw the cake, they got so excited even when I told them it would be messy. This cake is actually a very chocolatey cake that uses a zucchini to make it wonderfully moist, and a chocolate frosting with a lot of liquid helps create a "mud cake" effect. The cake was a huge hit with everybody. I asked if they would've ever known there was zucchini in it. I did not get one single "yes"! It wasn't just "good for being healthy". It was just "really darn good" which is what I strive for in everything I do.

Just because I have some success stories doesn't necessarily mean you will always be able to trick your FOODience. You will have some FOODience members that are just too observant and will pick up on absolutely everything anyone does that's out of the ordinary. Or the picky eater who refuses to try anything new. Or your kitchen tools might be having a bad day and you have no idea why. Whatever the case may be, it likely has nothing to do with you. It happens to the best of us.

In conclusion, to answer the question that the title of this post asks, sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. Celebrate it when you can and when somebody figures out what you did without you telling them, remember that it happens to the best of us.

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