SPOILER ALERT: This blogpost is based on the book Lessons In Chemistry and contains spoilers.
Elizabeth Zott hated being in class, sitting at a desk listening to monotonous teachers talking about boring subjects. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy learning. She loved it. But all the learning there was based on memorisation, and Elizabeth liked creativity. Elizabeth also disliked her classmates who did not share her hobbies. And all this made her suffer. A lot. She was a ten-year-old girl and everything was supposed to be fun. But it wasn’t. She hated school, had no friends and never felt like she fit in.
The nightmare didn’t end when school ended and she came home. Her parents, especially her father, were not kind to Elizabeth. But there was always a light at the end of the tunnel: her older brother John. John was the opposite of what she didn’t like about her life. John was always there, always kind and protective, encouraging Elizabeth to question things and learn for herself.
Their relationship was amazing and grew stronger as they spent more time together. Elizabeth felt that everything could be terrible, but with John by her side, things would somehow work out. And then everything changed.
Elizabeth’s father was extremely intolerant of people who were different from him, and when he found out that his son John was gay, he harassed him. He thought it was a disgrace to have a gay son and decided to make his life impossible. Since then John has felt trapped, as if the day had come when he decided it was time to end it all. He committed suicide. When Elizabeth found out, she was alone and devastated. She felt hopeless, convinced there was nothing she could do to improve her life, and all she could see was darkness.
A few years later, when she was about to start university, she realised that she liked science because it gave her certainty. Specifically, chemistry. Atoms and chemical reactions were easier to understand than people. But it was the 1950s and women were not considered good enough. Women were mostly housewives and secretaries, not scientists, engineers or pilots.
She completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees with honours and decided to do a Ph.D. But soon after she started, her tutor tried to sexually abuse her, and because the professor was very powerful and women were treated unfairly, there was not even a trial. Elizabeth was forced to leave her university and drop out of her PhD. She looked for other PhD programmes but found none. The only way she could do science was to join an institute that offered an assistantship called Hastings, where she would work in a lab with scientists.
Conditions were far from ideal. She was not treated well at her new job and had to fight for everything, but at least people let her work on science, her passion. One day, while eating lunch in the cafeteria, she met Calvin Harris, one of the world’s most celebrated scientists. They quickly became friends. Harris, who also had a terrible childhood, was intelligent and kind. He was always supportive of Elizabeth, as was her older brother John. They spent a lot of time together, sharing many ideas and working together on research projects. It was the first time in a long time that she felt deeply understood. They quickly fell in love. She was happy. But one day everything changed.
Harris died in an accident, leaving her alone and devastated. Hastings stripped Harris of everything connected with him, including his lab team and funding. And because Elizabeth was dependent on Harris, she was fired. Elizabeth tried unsuccessfully to find another job, and as a result she ran out of money. She discovered she was pregnant and would soon be a single mother. Things were looking bleak, but giving up was not in Elizabeth’s nature. Her daughter, Mad, and her love of chemistry would save her. And also cooking, which had always interested her because she believed it was the same as chemistry. With no job and a lot of free time, she did what different and innovative people do: combine unrelated ideas in unexpected and never-before-seen ways, resulting in original creations. Using unexplored techniques together with her in-depth knowledge of chemistry, she created new recipes that had never been seen before.
After catching the eye of a friend who worked as a television director, Elizabeth was offered to host a cooking show: Dinner at Six. She would cook one meal a day and discuss the importance of healthy eating with potentially millions of people watching. Elizabeth didn’t like the idea, but she needed the money, so she accepted. When she was at school, no one knew her. Now things were different. At first the show did not do well and was on the verge of being cancelled. But people began to love the originality of Elizabeth, whose recipes and analogies between chemistry and cooking blew the audience away.
Against all odds, the show became a national success and Elizabeth was deeply admired. But after several successful years, Elizabeth decided to quit the show because she never wanted to be a national TV star. All she wanted was to do science, her true passion. Elizabeth occasionally sent encouraging messages to the audience, and on the last day of the show she sent a special one:
“Whenever you start doubting yourself or feeling afraid, just remember. Courage is the root of change, and change is what we’re chemically designed to do. So when you wake up tomorrow, make this pledge. No more holding yourself back. No more subscribing to other’s opinions of what you can and cannot achieve. And no more allowing anyone to pigeonhole you into useless categories of sex, race, economic status, and religion. Do not allow your talents to lie dormant, ladies. Design your own future. When you go home today, ask yourself what you will change. And then get started.”
When we feel inspired by someone, it is not just because of what they do or how they do it. It’s also because of why they do it. Elizabeth was excellent at cooking and used innovative techniques, but the most important thing was the principles and values she embodied. She didn’t accept the status quo, rejecting and challenging all preconceived notions about what women could do. Elizabeth believed that there is hidden potential inside every person, and she used cooking to help people discover how to unleash it. Elizabeth experienced many setbacks throughout her life but didn’t get stuck in the past. That’s what all her audience saw, making Elizabeth so admired. She knew it was not what happens to you that matters but your reaction to these experiences. That means the key is your willingness to embrace and adopt change and get started, no matter what.
“Design your own future. When you go home today, ask yourself what you will change. And then get started.” ~ Elizabett Zoth, Lessons in Chemistry.