The Sporkful What’s It Like To Cook With A Brain Injury?
Nov 24, 2025
Cheryl Green, a multimedia artist and filmmaker focused on disability experiences, shares her journey of living with a traumatic brain injury. She humorously details how her cooking has changed, including the challenges of relearning basic tasks like flipping salmon and testing stove burners. Cheryl discusses the emotional rollercoaster of laughter post-injury and the importance of asking for help, highlighting the often-overlooked struggles of those with invisible disabilities. Her satirical film 'Cooking With Brain Injury' vividly captures these experiences.
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Satire Reveals Everyday Struggles
- Cheryl made a satirical video called "Cooking With Brain Injury" that parodies cooking shows to show real kitchen struggles.
- The sketch uses deadpan humor to reveal daily obstacles and coping inside TBI culture.
Loss Of The Mind's Eye
- Cheryl lost her "mind's eye" after her TBI and couldn't visualize simple actions like flipping fish or mapping stove knobs.
- This lack of visualization made routine cooking tasks confusing and emotionally overwhelming.
45 Minutes To Season A Fish
- Cheryl described spending 45 minutes salting one side of a salmon because she couldn't picture flipping it, lining up forks in desperation.
- Eventually she flipped the fish and laughed at the obviousness of the other side being there the whole time.
