If you're a chef-y type of person, you might know all about the way the starch from the pasta water helps thicken and bind sauces. But if you're not, you're probably draining it and moving on as if nothing happened. This is what I did for most of my life (as you probably did too unless you come from an Italian family or were really reading up on classic techniques), but then something happened around 2015 where we all started to watch food videos on Instagram and YouTube, and then suddenly we were all saving our pasta water. Am I right about this? Or was I just late to the party? Either way, yes, it's a common tidbit that pasta chefs enjoy, but it is far from universally known. Case in point: the roommate in this story, who shared their tale on the AITAH subreddit.
Sometimes roommate drama can be difficult to get around. You live together, so you're having to make certain compromises in order to keep each other happy. You can't insist that everything is done your way, or else you'll never get anywhere. You have to work together to create new ground and new opportunities for connection. Cooking together is a great way to do that. It forces you to collaborate and to come together to make something greater than the sum of its parts. That's what this pair of roommates tried to do, but things backfired.