Oh, yessss! This embarrassing moment immediately jumps to mind:
During the 8 years I taught classical French and Northern Italian cooking in my San Diego home, I once was demonstrating beating many egg whites to prepare the light basis of a chocolate mousse. I had prepared this dish many times, during which I loved to take the stiffly-beaten whites in my large copper bowl (hand-carried from France), and flip the bowl over my head to show how the beaten whites remained in the overturned bowl. They always did.
Well, your imagination has it right! The whites for some reason dropped down flat on my head, bringing gasps and laughter to all, including me!!
Luckily, being at home, I excused myself and scooted upstairs, rinsed my hair and completed the class wet-headed. That never happened again, but the moment has remained embedded in my teaching memories.
I actually have a fear of hair in my food. It probably stems from childhood when I got a long hair stuck in my throat while eating pizza. One end was wrapped around my uvula while I tugged on the other end trying to dislodge it. The experience stuck with me! A couple of years ago, I had an embarrassing food-related experience at a community menorah lighting. After the lighting, the crowd enjoyed Hanukkah-related food laid out on a table. There were jelly doughnuts and latkes in big pans and regular-sized plastic cups of applesauce next to the latkes. I took a doughnut, a couple of latkes and a cup of the applesauce and went to sit down. My husband (I'm not Jewish but my husband is) joined me but immediately started laughing when he saw that I had taken an entire cup of applesauce. Apparently, we were supposed to use a spoon to scoop out a bit of applesauce onto our latkes. I had wondered why there were only a few cups of applesauce available. Oy vey!
Not hair, but hair raising 😂 I cut up a pineapple the wrong way for Wolfgang Puck at a live demo in front of a couple hundred people in the early 90’s. 😖😂
Years ago I was asked to bring a heart-shaped chocolate cake to a Valentine Day dinner. I was relieved because I didn't have much time and thought it would be a slam dunk. Ha! The first cake would not come out of the pan. It was a mess, and I threw it all away. The second cake behaved in like manner. On the 3rd attempt, I divided the cake into 4ths before trying to remove it from the pan. That worked, but the cake was pieced together although I lathered it with whipping cream. It wasn't even very good. And then there was the stew that even our dog wouldn't eat...that's a story for another day! ❤️
Most embarrassing food moment - there have certainly been a few. I did not learn to cook as a teenager or young adult. Money was tight enough that my mother figured I'd spoil the food so didn't let me do anything but "put the potatoes on." (Boiled potatoes accompanied every dinner in our house.) I slowly learned on my own, especially after I was married. I'm actually kind of proud of the fact that I only ever produced one completely inedible meal. On the one hand, this is all Lynn Redgrave's fault, as I was watching some daytime talk show and she came on with a recipe she said was delicious and fool-proof. The problem was, I think, that a number of foods have different names in the UK. Her recipe called for stewing beef chunks to be slow-cooked in "tomato puree." I still don't know what she was talking about - it came from a can and looked like tomato paste to me, so I assumed that that's what it was. But in hindsight, I see that it was more likely tomato sauce. Or, maybe I was supposed to puree some fresh tomatoes, which I certainly didn't. The past was to thick and too bitter to do anything good for the beef. My poor husband ate quite a few bites before I tasted it. He seemed very relieved to be told to stop eating it. We had cereal instead and laughed about it. And it made me careful to not use ingredients if I wasn't really sure what they were. Many, many and many years later, I am a really good cook. I understand the properties of different foods and sauces and how they might taste well together or clash and produce something less than appetizing. I still look out for recipes that sound good and look good, and I'm not afraid to substitute something else for an ingredient. But now I understand what I can substitute and what I can't.
Well….as a new bride I invited persnickety sister-in-law to lunch. I made a potato salad and while chopping onions I lopped off the end of one of my fingernails. (Please remember I was new at this food prep called cooking) I looked through the pile of onions, didn’t see the fingernail and thought ‘if I can’t find it, no one else will either.’ Yep, you guessed it, the first bite she took and she found the prize!
If I've had an embarrassing food moment, I've put it out of my mind! LOL! The funniest food moment though was when my husband and I made a Kitty Litter cake for his dog-loving brother's birthday. Spice cake with a green topping that looked just like chlorophyll litter. Greg melted tootsie rolls and spread them all over the sides of a squeaky clean, brand new litter pan that I had constructed the cake in. We served it with a litter scoop! It was sooo realistic and gross! (and delicious!)
Oh! Kate! I loved your post today...you are human just like we all are...and mistakes can be made in the kitchen!! I loved the head scarfs and I think I NEED one!! Thank you! The other parts of your post surely resonate with me...Country Joe and Fish...oh my do I remember that song....and Women by Kristin Hannah; I haven't gotten to read it yet...but I too became a nurse during the Viet Nam era. I went to sign up to become an Army Nurse...but I was graduating from a hospital school of Nursing with a Diploma and an A.A.S. NOT a B.S.N. and they would not take me. Perhaps that was God smiling down on me. I felt that as a nurse I could help the wounded solders but Uncle Sam did not want my help. Many years later; I volunteered to be part of the Humanitarian Aid to Somalia during the Famine in 92-93. I was there for 10 months...I served the people without a BSN. I was also accepted by Doctors Without Borders. I went back to school...just to see if I could- and to be a better nurse. I obtained by BSN, MSN and Ph.D....but what I learned as a diploma nurse was the most rewarding. Thank you for the memories....and I cannot wait to read "The Women".
Your story brought back memories. I was 19 and had a job working as a waitress at the elegant and historic Window Shop cafe in Harvard Square (sadly long gone). I was inexperienced and nervous serving the high-end European pastries and food. I had long unruly hair in those days and had to wear it in a net. One day I set down a steak in front of a customer and a big hairpin fell on top of it. I thought I’d be fired, but the kitchen just remade the dish and I got a tongue-lashing from the boss, a strict lady with a heavy German accent but a kind heart.
Been there, done that! And it was absolutely mortifying. I even lost a much needed client at the time. Live and learn. It never happened again!
Oh, yessss! This embarrassing moment immediately jumps to mind:
During the 8 years I taught classical French and Northern Italian cooking in my San Diego home, I once was demonstrating beating many egg whites to prepare the light basis of a chocolate mousse. I had prepared this dish many times, during which I loved to take the stiffly-beaten whites in my large copper bowl (hand-carried from France), and flip the bowl over my head to show how the beaten whites remained in the overturned bowl. They always did.
Well, your imagination has it right! The whites for some reason dropped down flat on my head, bringing gasps and laughter to all, including me!!
Luckily, being at home, I excused myself and scooted upstairs, rinsed my hair and completed the class wet-headed. That never happened again, but the moment has remained embedded in my teaching memories.
I actually have a fear of hair in my food. It probably stems from childhood when I got a long hair stuck in my throat while eating pizza. One end was wrapped around my uvula while I tugged on the other end trying to dislodge it. The experience stuck with me! A couple of years ago, I had an embarrassing food-related experience at a community menorah lighting. After the lighting, the crowd enjoyed Hanukkah-related food laid out on a table. There were jelly doughnuts and latkes in big pans and regular-sized plastic cups of applesauce next to the latkes. I took a doughnut, a couple of latkes and a cup of the applesauce and went to sit down. My husband (I'm not Jewish but my husband is) joined me but immediately started laughing when he saw that I had taken an entire cup of applesauce. Apparently, we were supposed to use a spoon to scoop out a bit of applesauce onto our latkes. I had wondered why there were only a few cups of applesauce available. Oy vey!
Not hair, but hair raising 😂 I cut up a pineapple the wrong way for Wolfgang Puck at a live demo in front of a couple hundred people in the early 90’s. 😖😂
Years ago I was asked to bring a heart-shaped chocolate cake to a Valentine Day dinner. I was relieved because I didn't have much time and thought it would be a slam dunk. Ha! The first cake would not come out of the pan. It was a mess, and I threw it all away. The second cake behaved in like manner. On the 3rd attempt, I divided the cake into 4ths before trying to remove it from the pan. That worked, but the cake was pieced together although I lathered it with whipping cream. It wasn't even very good. And then there was the stew that even our dog wouldn't eat...that's a story for another day! ❤️
Most embarrassing food moment - there have certainly been a few. I did not learn to cook as a teenager or young adult. Money was tight enough that my mother figured I'd spoil the food so didn't let me do anything but "put the potatoes on." (Boiled potatoes accompanied every dinner in our house.) I slowly learned on my own, especially after I was married. I'm actually kind of proud of the fact that I only ever produced one completely inedible meal. On the one hand, this is all Lynn Redgrave's fault, as I was watching some daytime talk show and she came on with a recipe she said was delicious and fool-proof. The problem was, I think, that a number of foods have different names in the UK. Her recipe called for stewing beef chunks to be slow-cooked in "tomato puree." I still don't know what she was talking about - it came from a can and looked like tomato paste to me, so I assumed that that's what it was. But in hindsight, I see that it was more likely tomato sauce. Or, maybe I was supposed to puree some fresh tomatoes, which I certainly didn't. The past was to thick and too bitter to do anything good for the beef. My poor husband ate quite a few bites before I tasted it. He seemed very relieved to be told to stop eating it. We had cereal instead and laughed about it. And it made me careful to not use ingredients if I wasn't really sure what they were. Many, many and many years later, I am a really good cook. I understand the properties of different foods and sauces and how they might taste well together or clash and produce something less than appetizing. I still look out for recipes that sound good and look good, and I'm not afraid to substitute something else for an ingredient. But now I understand what I can substitute and what I can't.
Well….as a new bride I invited persnickety sister-in-law to lunch. I made a potato salad and while chopping onions I lopped off the end of one of my fingernails. (Please remember I was new at this food prep called cooking) I looked through the pile of onions, didn’t see the fingernail and thought ‘if I can’t find it, no one else will either.’ Yep, you guessed it, the first bite she took and she found the prize!
If I've had an embarrassing food moment, I've put it out of my mind! LOL! The funniest food moment though was when my husband and I made a Kitty Litter cake for his dog-loving brother's birthday. Spice cake with a green topping that looked just like chlorophyll litter. Greg melted tootsie rolls and spread them all over the sides of a squeaky clean, brand new litter pan that I had constructed the cake in. We served it with a litter scoop! It was sooo realistic and gross! (and delicious!)
Oh! Kate! I loved your post today...you are human just like we all are...and mistakes can be made in the kitchen!! I loved the head scarfs and I think I NEED one!! Thank you! The other parts of your post surely resonate with me...Country Joe and Fish...oh my do I remember that song....and Women by Kristin Hannah; I haven't gotten to read it yet...but I too became a nurse during the Viet Nam era. I went to sign up to become an Army Nurse...but I was graduating from a hospital school of Nursing with a Diploma and an A.A.S. NOT a B.S.N. and they would not take me. Perhaps that was God smiling down on me. I felt that as a nurse I could help the wounded solders but Uncle Sam did not want my help. Many years later; I volunteered to be part of the Humanitarian Aid to Somalia during the Famine in 92-93. I was there for 10 months...I served the people without a BSN. I was also accepted by Doctors Without Borders. I went back to school...just to see if I could- and to be a better nurse. I obtained by BSN, MSN and Ph.D....but what I learned as a diploma nurse was the most rewarding. Thank you for the memories....and I cannot wait to read "The Women".
Your story brought back memories. I was 19 and had a job working as a waitress at the elegant and historic Window Shop cafe in Harvard Square (sadly long gone). I was inexperienced and nervous serving the high-end European pastries and food. I had long unruly hair in those days and had to wear it in a net. One day I set down a steak in front of a customer and a big hairpin fell on top of it. I thought I’d be fired, but the kitchen just remade the dish and I got a tongue-lashing from the boss, a strict lady with a heavy German accent but a kind heart.