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Directions:When my daughter, Andrea, nominated me to participate in Food Network’s second season of the “Worst Cooks in America” television show, I yelled, “NO WAY.” I am an Elder’s wife who never considered learning to cook as being adventurous. And I do enjoy adventure from time to time. I had ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in taking part in an internationally broadcast cooking show. I rarely cook in my own home, let alone on cable television. The idea of me cooking in a kitchen on TV was ludicrous. So when I received the final casting call informing me that I was selected to compete, I thought I could get out of it by nervously screaming, “I can’t cook. Y’all don’t want me. I don’t want to learn how to cook.” Thinking by offering ALL the WRONG answers, the show’s producer would end the call. Instead she yelled and laughed louder and longer than me. Then she told me the point of the show was to teach “cooks lacking confidence” and award the winner $25,000.00. Though I STILL had reservations, I accepted the challenge of a lifetime. Before long I found myself among 15 other non-cooking contestants residing in an elegant high-rise penthouse located between Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen in New York City.
During the times contestants were not in training or in actual competition, we enjoyed fine foods prepared by professional chefs. In the heat of kitchen battle I made sure to remember my younger daughter Arielle’s admonition, “PLEASE don’t bore them with your war stories, Mother!!!!” But it was Andrea’s last words to me before departure that saved me from using a vegetable peeler to carve the cussing out of a fellow cook-in-training, “Mom, remember you are a Christian and an Elder’s wife. Don’t try to boss the other contestants around because they are as grown as you.”
When my dish flopped and the camera caught me dumping it into the sink, my husband Robert’s kiss and hope filled “Have a good time, Honey” at the airport terminal left me thinking how blessed I was to have these darlings care enough about me to send me on this great adventure. Even under my frustrated scowl, I wiped out the pot and started again. I burned the second pot too; but not nearly as deeply as the burning love I felt for my own personal Boaz in that moment.
Although my cooking skill did not improve, I GIVE DAILY THANKS TO GOD for the care showered upon me by my husband and daughters who thought enough of me to send me to meet my non-cooking self in a televised professional kitchen set in New York City. Now, THAT is true unconditional Ruth to Naomi love. And, “YES, Honeys. I had a VERY good time. Thank you for loving me.”
Article edited from original copy
written by Priscilla N. Harden |
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Notes: Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates. ~ Proverbs 31:30-31
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