Lesson Learned: Trust Your Gut

Oh, Carla, my favorite Top Chef contestant, ever!

You, who showed throughout the competition that being true to yourself, to the flavors that you'd wrought, to all the things that made you you, in the end, was enough to get you to the top 3...

You let whatever tiny shred of insecurity you'd held at bay for months of competition creep up and allow a better trained chef, at least on paper -- but still one who in this very same competition also got into the weeds, if I recall, and didn't stay true to herself -- dictate your final meal? Sous vide? A cheese souffle? Really?

Oh honey, I've been there.

I know you've beaten yourself up over letting that run away from you. But don't worry. The more these things happen, the more you learn to trust yourself.

Hopefully, that's the last time you let someone else tell you how or what to cook.

Because I am convinced we'll see great things from you. Anyone who thinks to approach a competition with love, rather than negative energy and bad vibes, is OK in my book.

Having fallen down on the job by not trusting my own gut, I can totally relate. Those times that something just doesn't feel right, when there's something I can't put my finger on but know I should be doing something else, that's when things come back to bite me.

It's happening less and less frequently, now, that whole thing with ignoring my gut. And the more I see the results serve me well, it's constant reinforcement that my gut is the one thing that won't fail me.