I’m neither the best nor the most passionate cook. One reason is that, in the kitchen, I can’t multitask to save my life. Not that anyone can, but when I have to chop this, throw that into the pan, turn down the heat here, and quickly whisk everything over a slight boil there, my mind explodes. To avoid the stress, I must prepare, line up all the dominoes, and then go as sequentially as the recipe will allow.
My fiancée, meanwhile, loves it. When I watch her, it appears like a cartoon scene, where stuff is flying out of a dust cloud left, right, and center, only for a perfect dish to magically emerge at the end.
Given our usual kitchen context, I was more than surprised to find myself shouting instructions at her Gordon Ramsay–style the first time we played Overcooked 2. The goal of the game is to work well with your partner in order to serve your restaurant customers the right dishes in the right order. To me, despite the funny plot twists and kitchen settings, from a graveyard to a hot air balloon, it seems about as close to a real restaurant kitchen to me as it gets.
It took less than a minute for me to get completely roped in. “You need to announce the orders! Where is my chopped salad? I need more pasta, more pasta!!” Ironically, this time, my girlfriend felt overwhelmed. “So many icons on the screen, so many tasks to take care of!” The game is a great exercise in real-time communication, and we’re having fun, but it was marvelous to see our talents reversed: me shuttling dishes over the counter, her not sure what to put into which pan.
It’s not just differing skills that make great complements. It can also be the same skills in different arenas. Find your criss-cross talents with others, and, every day, you’ll understand a little better why you need both like and unlike to make the perfect match.