Learning to cook means burning a few things. The smoke alarm is part of the lesson.

Ruined food is tuition. You find out what high heat does, how fast garlic turns, how your pan actually behaves, and none of that transfers from reading about it. The alarm going off is an event inside the lesson rather than a sign to stop, though it rarely feels that way at the time. Nobody gets competent in a kitchen without a few casualties.

Cook something slightly beyond you this week and accept in advance that it may be bad. Eat it anyway if it is edible. Write down the one thing you would change, then make the same dish again within a fortnight.