You are an inventor
“I have not failed 10,000 times. (…) I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work.” - Thomas Edison
Let’s fail!
Maybe it seems a bit rich to compare your kitchen experiments to Thomas Edison. But honestly, some people seem to take it that seriously - in that they think they will never be able to create something original and great.
Others are concerned that they will “follow a recipe wrong”. “I can’t for the life of me follow a recipe,” I’ve had people say to me. Well, maybe it’s better for you to just do your own thing - maybe even create your own recipe? Maybe if you wrote down what you did, you’d be able to follow that next time, and be on your way to some really successful dishes?
We are all different in how we approach cooking at home; we all range from following a recipe religiously to not having a clue what we just did, but we made a nice dish somehow. But what we probably all have in common is that we fail a lot. And that is okay! It’s great, even!
There is no way we can learn what works for us, in our kitchen with our needs without trying and failing a bit. And yes, throwing out food because you created something pretty catastrophic feels wasteful and of course disappointing, but chances are you won’t make that same mistake again. And then you are on your way to creating food that is so exciting that you won’t be tempted to let someone else do the work all the time, at the cost of your savings and the environment - and possibly also your health.
The great advantage you have when you invent new dishes at home is that the only measure of success is if you love it. You don’t need to have it judged by a panel on either appearance or sophistication. It’s all about what makes you feel good!
So allow yourself to make mistakes that will lead you towards the lightbulb that works (your signature dish!). And go crazy!
How are you being inventive in the kitchen? What have you learned from your cooking mistakes? Post on Instagram and tag me @TheFromScratchBody and use the hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!
