The Pleasing Stage

If you hadn't figured out from the mayo and onion story,  my experience with cooking was pretty limited when I began my Cooking show business.  I loved to bake, and I had mastered mixes, hamburger helper, mac and cheese and just about any type of pasta. But one of my weaker areas was Mexican cuisine. You might wonder why I would agree to make guacamole at a show when I had never worked with an avocado before? I like to call this the pleasing stage of my business. I was so happy that someone booked a show that I was willing to make whatever they wanted me to make. It was sometime later when I realized that the consultant should minimally steer the host as to a recipe that makes a good demonstration and/or one that the consultant is skilled in making. Quite a concept, eh?

So I'm at a show and the hostess hands me the ingredients for a homemade guacamole... I very confidently held the rock-hard avocado in my hand without dismay.  That was because I did not know what a ripe avocado felt like, and neither did my host.  I grabbed my vegetable peeler and did my best to peel this slimy mess. And it was a mess, but not as messy as you would have thought! It was completely unripe and hard.  I took my fabulous chopper to it and to my surprise, found a gigantic PIT in the middle. Once I dug out the pit, I resumed chopping the avocado only to find out that it was so unripe that it did not mix with the ingredients at all. By this point, someone had come forward and suggested it might not be ripe enough ... but the funny thing was that most of the crowd were as clueless as I was. I remember people staring at the avocado like it was a gift from an alien. The black peel, the green color, the giant pit! Now when I mixed all the ingredients together, I have to admit this was the worst tasting guacamole ever made. But I think because only one or two in the crowd had ever had it, no one seemed to know better. To my surprise, I again sold a lot of choppers, many vegetable peelers and I even got a booking.