As I continue my journey of self discovery through cooking, I uncovered something interesting about myself.

I need to learn how to chill out.

As a goal-oriented person, I like to challenge myself. My decision to make two relatively complicated dishes on the same day — and for the first time — with only about four hours of cooking time, turned a fun afternoon into my own stressful episode of “Chopped.”

Earlier in the week, I decided to make a kale salad, baked ziti and tiramisu from scratch for my family. As a novice chef, I didn’t even know what ziti pasta looked like.

The baked ziti and kale salad went off without a hitch, but I struggled with the tiramisu. With time running out, I accidently broke an egg yoke in the egg whites I had been separating. I was starting to stress out because I had promised my family tiramisu and I was running out of time. In the midst of all the chaos in the kitchen, I lost perspective.

Tiramisu

I stepped back and regrouped. After a few minutes, I opted to make the tiramisu the following day.

The next day, while eating a generous portion of tiramisu with my lovely wife, I made a vow to stay focused and appreciate the opportunity to cook.

Each meal may not turn out perfect, and there will be a few disastrous dishes along the way, but the challenge to be a chef keeps the journey interesting.