Who has the right to judge another's taste, and what is wrong with tomato ketchup?

Just a couple of points - the real reason to use mustard in a salad dressing, is that industrial mustard contains many "Emuslsifiers" , making the salade dressing thick and sticky on the salad ... the added taste of the mustard is an additional extra.. but I have many french friends who are beginning to revolt against the overdose of mustard and other industrial condiments in their cuisine ..

On to Ketchup - or Catsup as the Indians first called it -
When it's in it's original hand made form, it's a real delice, as is a well made creole "rougail de tomates" !

What seems to be wrong in the constant industrialisation of condiments , is the reliance on salt and sugar.
People seem to think that salt "adds" to taste - in fact it doesn't - it's an "Exhausteur du Gout" - doing to taste what compression does to an audio signal, the only worry of using industrial condiments on everything, is that one could loose the capacity to apreciate some of the more subtle effects of taste ....

Vinegars are a huge subject in themselves ... so may styles and tastes to discover - but there is, also, a real and suble reason for their presence in cuisine - they break down greases ...

But - on the other hand - what's really important is that you do your own thing - and enjoy it !

There could, though, be a public health element involved in these "Right and Wrong way" comments.
Good Health starts with good "Hygiene Alimentaire", and it's debatable to understand just how responsable a public health system is to repairing the damages caused by the "Mal Bouffe" In these days of deficit and cuts, it makes one wonder ! The words Hyper-tension, Obesiete, Diabetes and Hyper Choreserolomie spring rapidly to mind - and to the consistant defecit of the Secutite Sociale

In Brittany and I guess other parts of rural France the locals are very conservative when it comes to food and drink. However when they try some more exotic stuff they generally lap it up. It's practically impossible to buy other than French wine unless you like some sort of Moroccan red, Italian or maybe Spanish red. White wine choice here in Finistere in the supermarkets is abysmal. It's Muscadet, perhaps Gros Plant, Alsatian, Loire and maybe one or two Burgundies.

A great treat (and very rare) in our kitchen is an egg banjo with chips and tomato sauce! I love their Bearnaise out of a bottle though!

I would put money on it that the French consume as much ketchup as the Brits (they'll never admit it though like McDo)