I thought I’d share some constructive criticism I received recently from an old friend. My response follows in italics.

” I listened to you doing a lesson on chicken. I think it could have been so funny, but you were rather serious. God, I imagine Julia trying to use those purple gloves and get “under the skin” of that chicken. You played it very straight. A little too professorial. I think you should let your natural personality shine through and not put on a teacher’s hat. Your natural personality is very smart, a little cynical and sophisticated. I felt talked down to a bit. I felt like you were addressing a sort of young, not too smart, but eager student.”

Well, at the risk of sounding like Donald Rumsfeld, you make videos with the personality that you have, and I’m no Julia Child. Now, I’m not saying that I’m not loads of fun as a dinner guest or a shopping companion; but making videos is hard. It’s stressful and– at least for me– it wasn’t that much fun. On the other hand, I felt I had do it at whatever level I could do it. It was the only way to share the techniques I thought might be most helpful to people.

Just to give you an idea of the challenge involved in making that chicken video: I had a single split broiler, so we could only do 2 takes– 1 with each half. Part way through the first, we noticed that I was sniffling because the room was too cold. End of first take. So there I was with no safety net, no teleprompter, making up an endless stream of (I hoped, pertinent) chatter. while I was desperately trying to avoid nicking the skin because I was saying that it was very important not to nick the skin. How much fun is that? Meanwhile, the clock was ticking, the tab was mounting, and I had 3 other videos to do that day.

I hope I don’t sound too whiney and complaining. We did the video and I thought it was good enough. What more can I say? I’ll try to be funnier?!

As far as condescension goes: Wow, I certainly didn’t feel condescending while I was trimming that fat. I just felt anxious about blowing another take. I sincerely apologize if other people feel that way about my tone. It was the furthest thing from my mind.