A friend gave my homemade dinner a score out of ten. How do I ask him to leave judging games off our table?
FoodHe slid a folded paper towards me after the stew. "Six out of ten. Good effort." I thought he was joking until I saw he'd scored the starter and pudding too.
We often watch cooking competitions together. He said the cards were a bit of fun, but I hadn't agreed to have my first dinner for the group treated as a round in one. I spent the rest of dessert wondering what would raise the score, which isn't how I wanted to sit with my friends.
I can laugh at a cooking mistake, and I don't want everyone to praise food they dislike. I do want the next dinner to feel like hospitality instead of an assessment. Should I speak to him privately before inviting the group again, or put a no-scoring request into the invitation? I'd rather not make every guest answer for his three pieces of paper.