The Sweet Way Chef Aarthi Sampath's Dad Responded To Her Worst Cooking Disaster

We've all had – or live in fear of – a kitchen cooking disaster, whether it be a roast on fire in the oven or using an alternative ingredient that makes us wish we had made an alternative dish. But before you get discouraged looking over your fire-extinguished meal, know that professional chefs aren't immune to cooking disasters either. For example, in a video appearing on Food Network's website, Guy Fieri recalls a time when he set a flambé cart on fire in a restaurant dining room and almost lost his job. Tiffani Faison recounts when she mistakenly thought she could use Cool Whip as heavy whipping cream for a fettuccine alfredo dish she was making for her family. "We ordered pizza. It was nasty. Like terrible, terrible," Faison said.

Aarthi Sampath, who rose to culinary renown as a television personality on "Guy's Grocery Games," "Chopped," "Beat Bobby Flay," and as a judge on "MasterChef" (via Instagram), also once made a major cooking mistake. That's right, Sampath, who goes as far as to say "food is my religion" on her website, once made a kitchen blunder so severe she required a bit of reassurance from her family.

Granted, Aarthi Sampath's worst cooking disaster came when she was just a novice cook at the early age of just 13 years old when she attempted to make her first Baked Alaska, but even as an accomplished chef now, she still remembers the mistake (via Food Network). "So, the recipe said you need to whip your egg whites, and I did not know what whipping egg whites was. So I thought you just have to beat them like you'd do for an omelet. And then I poured it over ice cream. So imagine an egg white omelet over like soupy ice cream." 

Luckily, Sampath had some pretty awesome familial support, in her case from her father. "The best part about it was my dad ate it ... just to make me happy. He said, 'Mmm, that's pretty good."

Sampath still appreciates the upbringing her father gave her now that she is an adult, writing on Instagram that the trips he would take her family on inspired her culinary endeavors. "We traveled every year to a new place while growing up ... #memories with dad are always special. We ate so well at every trip. My love for food definitely stems from that curiosity and exploring the world. Thanks Appa," Sampath wrote.