21 Cooking Fails and Bad Food for Optimistic Home Chefs Learning to Trust the Process (September 23, 2026)

Author image for Cata Holmes
Cata Holmes • Writer
Sep 24, 2026 11:15 AM EDT

Can you really trust the process when dinner looks like this?

You've seen this mess happening before… maybe in your kitchen. When it comes to cooking, some people are born with the talent, while others are born with the one of eating. Sounds perfect, actually. One is made for the other… The problem appears when the one who is not made to cook decides to give it a go. And hey! There's nothing wrong with wanting to try something new, but start small. 

Let me share a personal story of mine. I come from a family of cooks. My dad is an excellent cook, and he's always been the one in charge of making dinner for the family. His brother, my uncle Francis, is a professional chef and has lived all over the world, working as a full-time kitchen chief for big hotel chains. Needless to say, I've always thought that I had the chef gene inside of me, so when I was around 16, I bought a cookbook for the first time and decided to start following those recipes.

The problem is that I've never cooked before, or at least, something as elaborate as this dish that I was attempting to recreate. So, you can imagine what happened next… my kitchen was a complete mess, and my mom always fainted when she walked in and noticed that dinner was not only not happening, but my house was upside down. Of course, that day we ended up having pizza… but I was very disappointed, and I didn't understand why I couldn't cook if my dad and uncle were great cooks.

With time, I realized that you can be good at something, but you just have to start slow and try it to see if you really like it. Turned out that I don't enjoy cooking, except for some simple everyday recipes. I have other talents and things I like to do, so the disappointment slowly went away. I guess we all have to start somewhere, and it's great to look for hobbies. Just remember: start trying a small thing and see how it goes!

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amateur chef FAIL relatable memes cooking fail funny memes cooking memes
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