After waking up to yet another gray, frigid day, I read – not without little frissons of envy, to be honest – the latest crop of great food bloggers selected by The Huffington Post, which run the gamut from folksy to romantic.
The photos certainly could festoon the walls of great museums, vying for space next to some of the classic still lifes, which of course still inspire many food photographers.
Why is it that I rarely see bad, burnt, ruined food in photographs on food blogs? I mean, come on, how many times do I whip up something I’ve never cooked before and end up throwing it in the garbage in shame? Perfection seems to be the rule in these lovely blogs, the same tendency I see in major fashion catalogs with all the Photoshop-perfect models, none suffering with cellulite or pimples.
Well, yesterday, while attempting to photograph a piece of toast bouncing out of my toaster, I managed to capture the essence of culinary failure instead. Thankfully no British friends stood around, waiting for tea and toast.
Yes, dear readers, a piece of burnt toast, with perfect bokeh.
P.S.: This is my 900th post!
© 2013 C. Bertelsen
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 
Sorry to be so late in replying, but we just got back from the funeral and the long trip to get there.
Carstens,
Thank you for the comment! I agree, the toast was beautiful in its own way.
Maureen,
Glad that you also agree that we should let the warts show, so to speak! Thank you very much for the comment about the content of my blog.
Louise,
So nice to hear from you. Your posts are always so informative, so good shot or bad shot, go for it.
GREAT shot Cynthia! I must say, I totally agree with your perspective. There have been many posts of mine put to the wayside simply because I couldn’t catch a good shot. Now that I think about it, I should revive them good shot or not!
Thank you so much for sharing…Hope all is well with you and yours.
Thanks for yet another great post! It inspired my choice of topic for my blog this week – and I might add that I don’t shy away from writing about unfortunate adventures in cooking such as what happens when the oatmeal is left unattended, either. I get the impression that slick, manicured blogs are a dime a dozen these days and though many are well done, I note an increasing tendency for me to say after a quick glance at the page oh, another one of those, and stop reading fairly quickly. Yours remains an inspiration.
The smoke coming off the toast was beautiful and the poor, sad bit of burned bread wonderful in it’s own way. As for recognition by the Huffington Post – well, it may bring readers to a blog, which is always desirable. But it’s a featherweight information source, so I wouldn’t expect them to steer me to blogs with depth or real content. So I am not surprised that several marvelous blogs, including yours, weren’t included. Just have faith in those of us who appreciate thoughtful commentary and who recommend you to other thoughtful readers.
Explodyfull, yes, Pinterest! Allowing others to post their “shameful” failures, too. Is there one like this yet? I just checked – here it is: http://pinterest.com/mjonthemove/burnt-food/ and an article from HuffPo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/pinterest-food-fails-pictures_n_2199732.html
Thank you! Yea! We should create a a real of (failed) cooking pinterest/blog site!
Explodyfull, I really liked your posts. Maybe we’re on to something here!
I love how you managed to capture the smoke coming off the bread – I can almost smell that burnt toast! I agree a lot of food blogs seems so ‘perfect’. I like to share my fails (http://explodyfull.com/tag/cooking-fail/) because I feel it is all part of the experience..and because it was fun!
Toni, what a delightful story. Thank you for sharing!
When I was 11, I used to babysit my younger sisters in the summer. For some unknown reason, I loved burnt toast. So since I was the “cook,” my younger sisters got burnt toast for breakfast every morning. They didn’t know for years that there was any other way to make toast. (My sisters say today that it was like eating a charcoal briquette with margarine on it!)
Thank you, Erica. I didn’t eat the toast, though.
Yes, Marmaduke Scarlet! Loved your “Jackson Pollack” moment. Thanks for sharing that.
That is in fact a beautiful photo…
Hi Cynthia. This did make me laugh. I look at other food blogs and am filled with envy at some glorious photography, delicious looking food and what appears like effortless styling. My world isn’t like that at all, but I discovered early on that the occasional post about cooking disasters (particularly if I could make them funny) seemed to get a lot of positive comments! My Jackson Pollock moment (when an entire tray of tapas fell to the floor, exploding on impact) or my runaway icing (it moved house) or burnt cookies (now crumbs for anything from vegetables to ice cream). I think being perfect is overrated!