In the military you learn to follow a checklist. In business you learn to follow a narrative. In the kitchen, none of that works. The food just tells you the truth.
You can talk your way around a bad pitch deck. You cannot talk your way around an undercooked piece of chicken. It either worked or it didn't, and the only opinion that matters is the one on your plate.
I think that's why I trust it more than almost anything else in my life right now. It doesn't care about my resume. It doesn't care what I said I was going to build. It just asks whether I paid attention.
Some nights I don't. The rice comes out wrong, the sauce breaks, I forget the salt. And somehow that feels more honest than most of what I did in my old job for two straight years.