I enjoy good soup. I'm not talking about canned soup. I'm talking about either homemade soup or soup made from scratch by a chef who is making real, honest to goodness, homemade soup.
Kathy is with me on this. We both know great soup when we come across it. We used to travel to Chestertown, Maryland just to have crab bisque at the Wharf. The crab bisque was great. It was served with a small beaker of sherry for those who desired to add sherry to their soup.
Adding sherry to soup is not for every soup.
The Wharf sunk in a storm and we stopped going to Chestertown.
Earlier this month, Kathy had a booth at our senior center's annual craft show. You could buy homemade soup that was donated by members. We bought a quart of mushroom soup. It was wonderful. It also had sherry mixed in.
Kathy chose the soup from a long list of soups. The list had the soups and the names of the people who made the soups posted on the public bulletin board in the main room.
Kathy chose the mushroom soup without any particular expectations. She certainly didn't expect the soup to have sherry in it.
The next day Kathy heated the soup up and we had it for lunch. This was on a Sunday, and the center was closed. It wouldn't be open again until Monday.
On Monday, Kathy went to see if she could buy more soup. The soups were sold out. She asked for the name of the person who made the mushroom soup and they wouldn't give it to her.
On Tuesday, I went to the center to renew our memberships and find out what I could about the soup maker. I told them I would like to either buy more soup or obtain the recipe.
They refused to provide me with the name of the soup maker citing soup maker confidentiality. I asked why they had posted the names of the soup makers on the public bulletin board on the day of the show if there was a confidentiality issue involved.
This resulted in 2 more women coming and standing beside the woman I was talking to. They were a formidable trio. I believe all of these women were paid staff.
My next question sent them all into a tizzy. I pointed out that the membership applications I had just submitted had required us to sign a release so that the center could use our names and pictures and whatever for promotional purposes. I asked if this didn't contradict the soup maker confidentiality claim.
The lady I had originally asked help from said that in all her years, she had never heard of a request such as mine. I pointed out that before retiring, I had been a therapist and was familiar with the concept of confidentiality.
The cauldron was starting to bubble for sure.
In desperation, I asked could they please contact the soup maker and let her/him know someone so loved the soup that they wanted to either buy more or see about getting the recipe. That was it.
That was the proverbial straw for these ladies. I was told emphatically that they would not reveal the name of the soup maker and that they would not even try to contact the soup maker and let the soup maker decide for her/his self.
I left.
Next year if they have the craft show and the soup maker donates soup and if they post the soup maker's name on the bulletin board, I will make sure to make a note of the name and try again on my own to reach the soup maker.
There was something very déjà vu about all this.
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