Here’s an excerpt from Charleston Style and Design’s latest issue and an essay I wrote about how cooking mistakes can actually be a good thing for healing laughter, learning, and even crying:
Cooking mistakes can be a good thing
Mom used to say that there is no use in crying over spilled milk. But as a chef and cookbook author who has spent countless hours in the kitchen, I can tell you there are benefits to a good cry.
I’ve witnessed a lot more grievous errors than spilled milk. I once worked frantically with a young French male apprentice under the watchful eye of decorated pastry chef Pierre Hermé. We were trying to prevent a huge vat of pastry cream from quickly becoming a messy batch of sweet scrambled eggs. We succeeded, barely, by straining the rapidly clotting batch, but not without sweat and tears. No shame in it, even for a French boy or this American girl. Lessons learned: Constantly whisk your pastry cream, and don’t let the flame get too hot…
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Happy cooking!