The fire department came to my home today because I burned a grilled cheese sandwich. I walked away from the stove for a minute, missed a call from my home security company, and within 5 minutes Jersey City’s finest had been dispatched, and were knocking on my door. (Needless to say, I was not looking my finest.) Two fire trucks with several burly firemen (fully-suited) showed up to witness my mistake. And when the guy in charge came in, he jokingly remarked “It smells great in here,” and checked my stove.
He called it in as a false alarm, assuring me, “This sort of thing happens all the time.” But then, shame overcame me, and I threw the charred sandwich away, and retreated to bed.
I believed this was the penance I had to pay for my Saturday night outing. And my Thursday night one, too. See, I went out knowing full well that I was recovering from a cold, and from a mild concussion caused by a large mirror hitting me on the back of the head (I was rescued by my photographer, Matt). I knew I should have stayed home. God told me that I should have stayed home. And now, I can’t get up in the morning, I am groggy, I have a cough and a headache I can’t shake, and I can’t grill a sandwich.
Burning the sandwich was especially disturbing for me because making a grilled cheese sandwich was the first thing I learned to cook (Ok, I lie. Boiling an egg was the first – grilling a sandwich was the second), and because I have a cooking blog that’s supposed to help others learn to cook. I didn’t want to muse about this incident at all. But then I thought, 1. it’s important to admit that even the most advance cook makes mistakes, and 2. it’s kind of important to be alert when cooking.
Blunders in the kitchen are ok. Really, it is perfectly normal to make mistakes. Mark Bittman wrote a great blog post about this very thing. Sometimes, errors are made, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed. Don’t do what I did. Do not retreat. Do not feel as if you are a failure simply because you burned something, or undercooked it, or overcooked it. This is part of the natural cooking process. Practice is what makes you a better cook, and mistakes are part of the practice process. So stand proud in your kitchen. And if, by chance, the fire department shows up to witness your mistake: smooth your hair down, smile as prettily as possible, and offer to make them a grilled cheese sandwich.
(Photo of Jersey City’s finest courtesy of bestofnj.com.)
