The Worst Dish

I love to cook. My cookbook collection while small covers the entire food spectrum. Some are classics that have been in print for years, while others are fad books, which have yet to stand the test of time. My personal favorite is "The New Wolf in Chef's Clothing", written during a period where men were not expected to know how to cook at home unless they were burning steaks on the grill. Each recipe is portrayed through the use of pictures very few words are thrown into the mix. I have not learned much about cooking from this book but I have had many a laugh.

Most of my cooking is done from memory and by discovery. I have many memories of hours spent in my grandmother and mother's kitchen. Watching them prepare dishes from all over the world. I can recreate most of what I learned but my mother still makes the best-damned fried chicken on the planet. Cookbooks and cooking shows also provide me with inspiration, which I take into the kitchen to add my own sense of pizzazz.

Like most chef's I believe that I have more successes than failures. But when I do fail I fail spectacularly. Several years ago I came across a recipe that called for baking a corned beef rather than boiling it. I figured what the hay and gave it the old cooking school try. Basically the recipe called for the corned beef to receive several baths as it was cooking to wash away the salt. I followed the recipe to a "T" and what I created was on of the truly uneatable dishes of all time. It was horrid. So horrid that even our dog Shasta turned her nose up at it and actually whimpered and hid in the corner after one taste.