Flambé Fail (Video and Lessons)

Ah the joys of failure! We all fail, all the time. The real trick is in how we handle it. I usually choose to laugh. Here, I choose to life while also choosing to share it with you…

A week or so ago I posted a story about how I almost burned my apartment down by igniting a grease fire. Soon after that I found myself cooking again, and I was using a recipe that required “flambéing”

flambé: (Cooking) dipped in or covered with a flammable liqueur and set afire when served;

That’s right: I was going to intentionally set a fire in my kitchen! Whoo-hoo!

Then I thought, “Hey, this would be cool to record and post because, a) flambé is fun to watch and b) I wanted to show everyone that I could in fact work my way around a kitchen.”

Things did not go quite as planned. Here are the results:

(Pardon my singluar use of profanity at the very end of this video…)

That is a FLAMBÉ FAIL!

In my defense, I have made this recipe twice before. The first time it went like rather like this. The second time resulted in a giant fire plume that took me off guard. Both times the food ended up tasting quite good.

I posted this video now for two reasons:

1. I am always willing to participate in a little self mockery
2. There are a few useful things you can take away from my flambé example

What are those “useful things”? Glad you asked. Here they are:

Following Instructions is Important

Before you start commenting or emailing about what I did wrong, let me tell you, I know. One of the things I did wrong was that I misread the recipe. I thought it said to remove the steak from the pan, add the liquor, add the steak back in, then set it on fire. What the recipe actually said was remove the pan from the heat, add the liquor, return the steak to the heat, then set on fire.

This little difference results in the liquor hitting nothing but hot pan, and therefore evaporating before I had a chance to light the match.

Just goes to show, completely understanding and following instructions is critical.

Recipes are Just Guides

On the other hand, recipes are not “written in stone.” As I watched my liquor evaporate and my flambé dreams go up in steam, I remembered how I made it work so well the second time. The key was that the pan was too hot. The recipe says to get the pan blazingly hot. When I do that, the liquor instantly evaporates. When I turned the heat down to medium high, the liquor didn’t immediately evaporate and I was able to get a beautiful flambé.

A recipe is written by one person to be read and followed by hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other people. That one person has their own tastes, equipment, advantages, and limitations. They do their best to come up with a general plan that will work for everyone, but at the end of the day every single person is different.

All systems, be they recipes, diet or exercise plans, business success systems, etc. or just guides. If you follow them step by step exactly, you may get some good results. But the real power comes when you start to understand the underlying principles and can make adjustments to those steps as needed.

Make Failure Fun

I gotta tell you, when I set up my camera to record, I had big visions of this awesome flambé caught on video that would make me look like a stud. When it didn’t happen, my initial thought was to delete the video and never tell anyone.

Then I thought, “why not?” It’s funny, for me and others. And do I really care if people make fun of me about it? It’s not like I am trying to build a career as a “flambé expert,” and this video would crush my credibility.

I find that the more willing people are to admit and put their failures out there, the less likely they are to be embarrassed by failures that do happen. This makes them more willing to take risks and try new things, and as a result succeed more. Plus, people generally feel connected to you when they watch you fail with good nature.

Don’t be afraid of your screw ups; laugh at them and the world will laugh with you.

Try, Try Again

This flambé thing has been hit or miss for me. Am I going to try it again? You betcha! There is no reason to throw in the towel after one or two bad experiences. Learn from them and try again. ‘Cause let me tell you, when it works, not only does it look awesome but it tastes delicious.!

Preparation

In case you were wondering, yes, I had my fire extinguisher on the counter right there, in case things went horribly wrong. Trying new stuff is great and being able to improvise is one of life’s greatest skills, but a little preparation goes a long way. Remember, only you can help prevent kitchen fires.

There you gave it. Five simple things you can learn from my “flambé fail.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go order myself some food…

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