Amazing things can come out of the most unexpected, seemingly unfortunate (or even disastrous), situations… if we allow them to. Put another way, there is beauty in imperfection.
I was enjoying a good “Netflix and chill” kind of day, watching (literally) the Netflix original series Chef’s Table –very good show, highly recommend– and happened to catch the episode that featured world-renowned Italian Chef, Massimo Bottura. His restaurant, Osteria Francescana, located in Modena, Italy, has been listed in the top 5 of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards since 2010. Bottura is well known for his whimsical creations, and one of the most famous is his lemon tart.
As the story goes, his pastry chef (Kondo Takahiko) was in the process of plating this beautifully constructed, perfectly crafted, gorgeous lemon tart dessert…and then dropped it. Can you imagine? Naturally, this amazingly gifted pastry chef was devastated. The dessert had splattered all over and was obviously ruined. He could not serve that lemon tart. Or could he?
Chef Bottura, who is a lover of art and nature, looked at the disheveled dessert and said to his mortified pastry chef, “It’s perfect! It’s beautiful. It’s a work of art.” And a classic was born. In fact, it was one of the defining moments that would shape his culinary career and would become a running theme in his restaurant…whimsical, imperfect, deconstructed culinary works of art. His now famous dessert is literally named “Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart.”
When I heard that story it brought tears to my eyes. What an incredible, beautiful reminder of the power we have in simply choosing an empowering perspective. I mean, this was serious business! This was (at the time) an incredibly talented yet struggling Italian chef trying to turn his restaurant into a success, and his pastry chef had just dropped someone’s dessert. Imagine all the ways he might have responded. The pastry chef was beside himself and Bottura could have erupted; he could have reacted in any number of ways that would have further shamed this man, but he didn’t. Instead, he embraced the man’s humanity and turned it into a gift. He chose to see the beauty in the flaws of the dropped dessert. And he chose compassion.
I literally love everything about this. Life is messy. We are human. We drop desserts. We make mistakes. Sometimes things are good, sometimes things are bad. Sometimes we are all put together and gorgeous, and other times feel like a dropped pile of custard. Sometimes our lives look neat and tidy, and other times our lives are splattered all over the floor, with us trying to salvage what we can.
The next time you find yourself in a situation that’s not going as planned, or the next time you feel like you’re not living up to some self-imposed, unrealistic expectation, remember Chef Bottura. He literally showed up “messy” and it was a huge success! There is value and beauty in imperfection.
Allow yourself to make mistakes. Show up for yourself with compassion. Stop judging yourself for not being “perfect” or, in other words, for being human. You are enough just as you are. You are worthy, period, end of sentence. You don’t have to earn or prove your worth. Show up authentically, even when that’s messy; embrace your imperfections.
And remember, in life we all have to drop a few lemon tarts!
Warmly,
Jen
Footnote:
If you’re interested in the story, here are a few more sources.