My dad was a professional chef for forty years.
Not a hobby cook. Not someone who followed recipes on weekends. A professional. Someone who fed hundreds of people, who could taste a sauce and know in thirty seconds exactly what it needed, who understood food the way most people understand their own name.
Last week someone told him he should be eating more carefully at his age. Since when does being old prevent certain privilege
I looked at my dad and watched his face. That specific stillness that happens when someone who has spent a lifetime building something real is told that perhaps they need a little guidance now.
He just smiled. Said thank you. And said nothing else.
And I wanted to say everything he didn't. Because what I've known about my dad. He was getting up before anyone else was awake and doing things properly when the person giving him advice was still in school. He has forgotten more about feeding people well than most people giving him guidance have had the chance to learn yet.
He is not confused. He is not struggling. I've never seen him as a problem that needs solving by someone younger with better information.
He is someone who earned the right to be asked — not advised. My siblings think am being dramatic.
I don't think the people who do this mean any harm. I genuinely don't.
But I wonder sometimes if you feel it. If you recognise that specific smile. The one that absorbs something rather than causes a scene. The one that has been practised so long it looks like patience but is actually something else entirely. I wonder what you figured out through sixty years of doing it for real — that no amount of well meaning advice from anyone younger could have taught you and how you handle similar situations
What a fuss about nothing, Father dealt with it appropriately, he is not senile and handled it the way he chose. If it had been me the comment had been made to, it would have washed over me, not important.
Daffydilly
mrsfeather
Yes it's AI. I hate this!
How do you know?
First paragraph is a giveaway.
Essay on "professional chef" misses the mark.
Patronising tone, attitude and definition, inappropriate for the target audience.
Do we yet know the context of the comments to Nora's father of who made them?
I think I've read the thread pretty well but I still don't quite understand.
Please can someone explain to me if they know?
Nanny27
Cath9
Being an oldie living on my own I seldom cook my meals. I buy my ready meals from M & S seldom from supermarkets. If I do cook my meal I love pork meatballs with a sauce which includes brandy!
Why does buying ready meals from M&S as opposed to other supermarkets make any difference? No criticism of eating ready meals BTW just wondering why you consider M&S superior
I refuse to believe M&S isn't superior. Even when the glow from my yellow stickered basket is blinding all the other customers
I use co-pilot at work to write emails for me. I sometimes change it a bit afterwards but it saves me so much time.
I also sometimes ask it questions or tell it a scenario and it often has sympathy for me. More sympathy than my co-workers!
OP sometimes when people have experience and a particular skill, 'some people' can be so patronising about it. I tend to think of them as the shallow thinkers
I’m reminded of the member of staff* at my mother’s care home, who was bringing round the little sandwiches for tea, and told my mother - then over 90, with dementia - that she should be picking the brown bread ones, not the white, as they were healthier.
*the only one I never took to - IMO she was in the wrong job.
As I told her, at her age my DM could eat whatever she liked.
Cath9
Being an oldie living on my own I seldom cook my meals. I buy my ready meals from M & S seldom from supermarkets. If I do cook my meal I love pork meatballs with a sauce which includes brandy!
Why does buying ready meals from M&S as opposed to other supermarkets make any difference? No criticism of eating ready meals BTW just wondering why you consider M&S superior
This person may have been well meaning but I would certainly have set them straight about making assumptions without information. Then they could be even more well meaning the next time they gave advice. Younger people should have allowances made in this situation. It is not helping them.
Maybe if you gave more context, like who and why someone thought your dad had to be told to eat better. It doesn’t make much sense otherwise.
Why do you assume that jakuss.
This is an honest question as we have no context
It would be another media nanny state brainwashed person
Being an oldie living on my own I seldom cook my meals. I buy my ready meals from M & S seldom from supermarkets. If I do cook my meal I love pork meatballs with a sauce which includes brandy!
It's incredibly frustrating when the younger generation thinks they know it all. Experience and craft mean nothing to them anymore.
Or as Oscar Wilde said when faced with the arrogance of youth: ”I’m not young enough to know everything
I'm not sure about this post being AI generated either to be honest, but just wanted to say to the OP that most elderly people do not eat as they should in my experience.
I worked in the community for 3 years, mostly with the elderly and I think it's true to say that none of them were eating a healthy diet. Buying, preparing and cooking good quality and nutritious food takes alot of effort and I see it in my own 90 year old Mum, who was a Cordon Bleu cook in the 70s, just hasn't got the energy or inclination to prepare food just for herself in the way she did as we were growing up and when my Dad was still alive.
She eats ready meals, egg on toast, beans on toast, sandwiches etc and plenty of fruit, but really doesn't have much of an appetite these days 😔.
So assuming this comment was from a health professional or a friend with good intentions, it's a perfectly valid thing to say to someone if you are concerned for them.
It’s the flowery sentences that give it away
That specific stillness that happens when someone who has spent a lifetime building something real….
But I wonder sometimes if you feel it. If you recognise that specific smile. The one that absorbs something rather than causes a scene.
Oldfossil I couldn't have put it as well as you did but fully agree AI is easy to spot.
My phone sometimes makes long hyphens and sometimes short.
On my laptop that doesn't happen.
Maybe someone coild please PM me as to why???
It is a generic issue, don't you find ? Patronising advice especially from the doctors. Breast lumps were followed with advice about types of bra to change to "at my age".
40 years as a programmer through to IT consultant, I asked a simple question - I gave the spec of my rather elderly laptop compared to the advertised min spec, highlighting some of the differences and if they thought it was going to manage Windows 11 as it would seem on the border of ability. I was then advised what the min spec was, and advised about software backup process. , All of which I knew.
Cossy
Doodledog
My guess is that it's almost certainly AI, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are being taken for fools. Before there is a pile on, it's worth considering that there is a chance that the OP wanted to write a post on the subject but wasn't confident enough to do it herself, so ran hers through AI to help her.
As I've said, I don't respond to her posts, as they do seem to follow the AI pattern:
Balanced phrases - not A, not B, but C.
The 'rule of three' - He did A, then B, then (punchline) C.
Questions phrased as information that leads the reader towards the 'correct' response- did you ever do A, which made you feel B, and it resulted in C? I wonder if you felt D?
There's more, but it is that sort of thing that flags AI writing. People do use it to 'cheat', but also to help with Dyslexia and to correct poor grammar etc. Given the readiness with which posts are often picked apart on here when someone posts in less than perfect English, I could understand someone using AI to help, and in my work experience those who really want to cheat will edit AI-speak to eradicate such obvious tells, but this post seems hot off the press. I wouldn't want the OP to feel she can't post again if the above is the case, and she will probably reinvent herself if it's all been a scam.AI is used now on every day life, by many people.
It’s often used to “amend” “correct” and “jazz up” statements, reports, even job applications, all quite legally.
Just because many of us don’t use AI on a regular basis, doesn’t mean others don’t.
There are many versions of apps etc online which allow us to freely use AI in very language format, we would choose a UK English version.
Which is what I meant by 'it's worth considering that there is a chance that the OP wanted to write a post on the subject but wasn't confident enough to do it herself, so ran hers through AI to help her.'
I'm not sure if you are disagreeing with me or saying the same thing, in which case I'm not sure why you quoted me😀
But why did this man say or feel the need to tell a random stranger what to eat? Makes no difference if uour dad was a chef or othetwise that was just rudeness and bad manners! None of his business and your dad handled that with dignity. 👏👏👏👏
That’s what I thought….
If you see a (usually long) piece of text such as the OP that includes an 'm dash' i.e. a loong dash rather than an 'n dash' ie a shorter dash that is used in most normal writing, it is a BIG give-away for probably being written by AI.
This OP certainly sounds like AI to me, and I don’t like that.
Samsaral, what came to mind immediately is the saying Pot, Kettle, Black, which I believe most people will understand.
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