Instead, pour yourself a glass of wine and re-evaluate the situation.

If the dish looks funny but tastes fine, the solution is easy: rename it. Over the years, I’ve served my guests “blackened carrot salad” (I added pomegranate molasses too early when roasting the roots), “melting, garlicky green beans” (I forgot about them on the stove and they almost dissolved), “molten fudge brownies” (underbaked, that is). Butterscotch pudding that never quite solidified in the fridge was rechristened butterscotch crème Anglaise, and poured over fruit.

I served all of this without apology. Since everything still tasted good (often better than intended), my guests thought that’s what I had been planning all along.

How do you think chocolate mud cake got its name? Probably from some cocoa experiment gone awry, but in a good way. And those Italian cookies called brutti ma buoni? It means ugly but good, a perfect way to manage expectations because the name says it all.

Of course, if the dish has truly failed in that you oversalted or -spiced it, or if you’ve overcooked the meat, or if the cake stuck to the bottom of the pan, you need to do a little more than just rename the thing. But it, too, can be saved.