Even Julia Child Ruins Dinner Sometimes :)

I am reading "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn (who also wrote "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry" which I just read). I came across this quote today, which I think warrants a post. Kathleen Flinn is a Cordon Bleu Paris trained chef. Her first book is about her time in Paris, and her second book is about her time teaching 9 women how to cook. In this quote, she is speaking to Donna, an otherwise confident newlywed who is reduced to a shaky mess when cooking for company:

"'Hey, I screw things up and I went to culinary school,' I said, approaching her. I gave her a quick hug around the shoulder. 'I burned toast this morning. I overcooked a steak the other night. I mean, it happens. Even Julia Child screwed up sauces and dropped potatoes, right on TV.'"

I have to say, the frequency of complete failure for me has actually increased as I have learned to cook. As I start to try ingredients that I have never worked with and more complicated recipes, I occasionally make something that leads to a string of cuss words, an incoming rescue by my wonderful dish-washing husband, and a pot of boiled spaghetti with a jar of Newman's Own for dinner.

Throughout my experience with learning how to cook, my mom (also a Cordon Bleu trained chef) has been a great help. She is a 24-hour cooking advice hotline and has helped me avert many a disaster (what can I substitute? why is this burning? will this recipe work??). Even when dinner is already ruined and there isn't any advice left to give, she tells me what Kathleen told Donna. Even the best cooks in the world still screw it up sometimes. This is classic mom advice, but also means a lot coming from a trained chef.

And here I go getting all sentimental. This is a big part of what cooking does for me. Even when I first started I noticed this. It is so therapeutic to have a domain in life where it is okay to screw up. Where even a total failure isn't a huge disaster. Having spent so much of my life in competitive school and work environments, with constant worry and stress about whether my efforts would get me to the next level, it is so heavenly to have one thing where I can take risks and fully enjoy my successes and happily learn from my mistakes. This is a lesson that I have carried over into other parts of my life and I hope to continue to do so. But it will always be one of the things that has me utterly addicted to cooking.