>>21441499As a chef, my goal is to give my patrons a good culinary experience.
Let's say I make a perfect ribeye steak and give it to three people. The first person eats it as is and gives his compliments to the chef. The second person sprinkles some salt on top, eats it, and also gives his compliments to the chef. The third person pours gravy from his mashed potatoes over his steak, eats it, and gives his compliments to the chef as well. How should I, an accomplished grillardin, feel about each customer's experience? I'd feel great about all three because they all ate what they considered to be an amazing steak.
Nobody has ever made a perfect meal, nobody has the exact same culinary palate, and no chef has ever truly mastered the art of cooking. With that in mind, any chef who gets offended when someone alters their dish to fit their personal preferences has his head so far up his own ass that it's a health hazard in the kitchen.
That is unless the patron significantly alters the dish without even trying it first and doesn't like the result. Those kinds of people should be drawn and quartered