Failure

Failure can be hard to stomach both metaphorically and literally. Food is expensive, and making a dish that you aren’t happy with, or worse that you can’t even eat, is rough. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t give a shit about your feelings. Sometimes things just go to hell and all you can do is accept it and move on. In those moments you can either laugh or cry. You can either admit defeat and never cook again, or you can take your lumps and learn from them. The choice is yours.

We all have our own version of the same story.

In those darkest moments, as piles of dirty dishes sit in the sink, a monument to failure, remember that you are not alone. Everyone has shared this experience. We all have our own version of the same story. Disappointment and frustration caused by a meal that was supposed to be delicious but ended up as a giant turd. This story, frustrating as it can be, is a story of progress and education. Let it act as a reminder of all the successes, not all of the failures.

I am writing about failure this morning because it is fresh on my mind. Last night I experienced my own culinary failure. Not my first, not my worst, and definitely not my last. The dinner I made was subpar at best. It was frustrating, and I was really annoyed with myself. However, I was immediately able to pinpoint where I went wrong and I won’t do it again. That’s the best you can ask for out of these types of situations.

Where I went wrong.

My mistake last night was that I rushed, and I was more focused on the appearance of quality than the quality itself. What I mean is that I was more focused on what I was going to post on Instagram than on what I was cooking. I made a dish that should have taken two days, and tried to make it in a few hours. Sure it looked pretty, but it was bland and boring. It was not at all what I was hoping for.

I’m telling you this because it’s important for me to be honest with you. It’s the same reason I posted about it on Instagram last night and openly talked about the failure. I want you to cook. I want everyone to cook. But that’s not going to happen if you are afraid to fail. If you think, based on what you see, that everyone else is perfect and your the only one who ever fucks up your never going to want to cook. In the time of social media, we need to be honest with each other more than ever. Not pushing polished turds out into the world and pretending that everything is perfect. Life is gritty. Cooking is messy. Failure is part of it all.

The only way to move forward is to move forward. Take your lessons with you on to the next challenge. Wear your failures as a badge of honor not shame. Because failure, more than success is what brings us together. It’s how we have always learned and how we always will.