Bitter into Sweet

Have you ever watched the show Chopped?

I love that show.

I love food; I love to cook; I love to watch people cook.

So when I got struck down with the plague (aka, the flu) this week, I wasn’t binge watching Gossip Girl or chick flicks, I was hooked on the good old Food Network.

Something that struck me between about episode five and episode six was that the trouble ingredients for the contestants across the board were not the foreign, no-one-actually-eats-this foods. They were the simple ingredients—the sweets.

In one particular episode, the contestants were given bakery items in every basket—cakes, macaroons, cinnamon rolls. The contestants’ ideas were as brilliant as any professional chef could realistically come up with in 20 minutes or less. Yet the judges found the same thing every time—too sweet, too sweet, too sweet.

As a [want to be] chef, my wheels started turning.

Why is it so hard to turn sweet into savory?

How can a sugary glaze ruin a perfect fillet when a sprinkle of salty crackers on a sweet ice cream can send the contestant to the winners’ circle?

There were so many metaphors wrapped up in this idea, I could spend hours unraveling them all. But for now, I will just share the one that came to mind first.

There’s a song I’ve been loving lately called “Bitter/Sweet” by Amanda Cook. The lyrics are very simple with one line repeated over and over again throughout.

“You turn the bitter into sweet, the bitter into sweet, the bitter into sweet”

There are so many moments in our lives where all we taste is bitter. We are overwhelmed with the flavors in our meal, and we so desperately wish that we could fold our napkin neatly over the plate until we can casually toss the leftovers into the trash.

Luckily for us, bitter is very easily turned sweet. In fact, it only takes the slightest amount of sugar to overpower the entire dish with sweetness.

The bitterness does not overpower the sweetness. Sweetness, however, has a way of changing the entire dish.

If you are tasting bitterness today, if you are overwhelmed with the flavors on your plate, know that there is sweetness coming. And although the plate may look the same after the sweetness comes, you will start to taste a whole new flavor.


We know the One who is the Giver of all good things. He is the sweetness. And it only takes a touch to change everything.

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