A friend recently sent me a fabulous article on failure from NPR called Failure Is A Good Thing. To quote Carroll, “Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know, or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematic victory… Failure is how we learn.” What a great way to look at something that is seemly so negative. And I'm inspired.

This week held a lot of failures for me – but I’m thankful for each one. I learned so much. Example number one – sugar. This week was our first foray into sugar – the most in depth and most challenging part of our pastry class. Not only did my color not turn out the way I wanted, but my sculpture broke not once but three times. But without experiencing those setbacks, I wouldn’t have learned how to correct them. If I did it perfect the first time, I don’t think I’d be any wiser.

Example number two – cuisine. It’s nearing cuisine final time. Our minds are simmering with ideas for our recipes. Once we have an idea of what to make, we need to practice. What may seem good in theory may not be a good idea during class. Ashley and I decided to spend our Saturday afternoon and evening playing in the kitchen. With concept in mind and ingredients in the refrigerator, we embarked in some experiments.

For her dish, Ashley wanted to make tomato and basil gnocchi. While we’ve made gnocchi a couple times in class, her idea is to add a creamy tomato sauce and basil to the potato, egg and flour mixture. Her first batch was less than ideal. But as she began to adjust ingredients, she got closer and closer to a good product. She then tried her hand at an eggplant flan, but since we didn’t have a blender, she couldn’t continue past roasting the eggplant and mixing it with cream and eggs.

Inspired by Charlie Trotter’s cookbook, I thought it would be neat to have my fish poised on top of a potato ring. The ring is made by finely slicing potatoes, cooking them flat in a hot oven and then wrapping them around a small, round mold and baking until crispy. Unfortunately I didn’t have a mandolin, so I sliced them by hand with a very dull knife. While I could get the potatoes to wrap nicely around the ring, I couldn’t get them off after they were done. I tried all sorts of tricks, but nothing seemed to work. A failure? Yes. But a good learning experience? Absolutely. Will I abandon the potato ring idea? I’m not sure. Gotta think about that one.

So I say, bring on the failures. I like what I learn and it just leads to success in the end.

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