"Every week I have a disaster in my kitchen. The fire alarm goes off repeatedly. But it doesn't stop me being adventurous"
About this Quote
The subtext is classic O'Grady: self-deprecation with teeth. By admitting to disasters, he invites you to relax your own standards; by insisting it "doesn't stop" him, he refuses the moral that failure should make you smaller. Its quiet argument is that adventurousness isn't a personality trait reserved for the effortlessly skilled. It's a posture, chosen in the presence of smoke and alarms and mild embarrassment.
Contextually, it lands in a Britain saturated with aspirational food culture, where cooking is sold as competence, calm, and control. O'Grady punctures that fantasy with the messier truth that trying things often looks ridiculous up close. The fire alarm becomes a symbol of social judgment - a mechanized "wrong" - and his punchline is to keep going anyway. The humor isn't just in the mishap; it's in the refusal to let domestic failure disqualify him from curiosity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Cooking |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
O'Grady, Paul. (2026, January 18). Every week I have a disaster in my kitchen. The fire alarm goes off repeatedly. But it doesn't stop me being adventurous. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/every-week-i-have-a-disaster-in-my-kitchen-the-4868/
Chicago Style
O'Grady, Paul. "Every week I have a disaster in my kitchen. The fire alarm goes off repeatedly. But it doesn't stop me being adventurous." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/every-week-i-have-a-disaster-in-my-kitchen-the-4868/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Every week I have a disaster in my kitchen. The fire alarm goes off repeatedly. But it doesn't stop me being adventurous." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/every-week-i-have-a-disaster-in-my-kitchen-the-4868/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.








