Favorite Diners

An Occasional Series at A Life of Food

This is Gerrard Preston Pew. He is my best friend. I love to cook for him.

Preston has a memorable habit at table; I call it the Preston Pick. Whenever I serve him cooked meat of any kind, he stares at it, sets fork and knife to it, slowly cuts into it...and then picks at it. Testing its doneness, its firmness. Sometimes he turns the meat and does the Preston Pick to other parts. And other parts. And others.

It might be minutes before the first bit of meat enters his digestive tract. He's too consumed with...picking.

Usually he will then eat the food and enjoy it immensely. Sometimes, though, he'll look up from his Preston Picking and stare at me balefully. Wordlessly.

That's when I take his meat and place it back on the grill/in the oven/in the skillet.

A few minutes later, Preston is eating his food with a smile on his wonderful face.