Jennifer Garner Jokes Her Kids ‘Really Love the Flavor of Char’ After All of Her Cooking Fails

Jennifer Garner is owning her cooking fails.  

During Wednesday’s episode of The View, the Family Switch star opened up about her Pretend Cooking Show (her social videos where she puts her cooking skills on display).

Co-host Sara Haines began by asking Garner about her signature unpolished process in the kitchen. 

“I love your Pretend Cooking Show because you leave in all the mistakes, including a fire alarm incident that happened. What is your worst kitchen disaster and would you ever make it into a real show?” Haines asked.

Given her love of cooking, the actress’ response was surprising.

“My worst kitchen disaster is being let into the kitchen in the first place,” she said.

Jennifer Garner in the kitchen.GARNERISH/YOUTUBE

She then joked about her kids’ reviews of her food.

“I love to cook and thank goodness I’ve trained my kids to really love the flavor of char,” joked the mom of Violet, 17, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 11. “They say that’s how they know I made it. ‘Cause I always want things just a little bit crispy and then I forget. It’s like, whatever. My toxic trait is optimism. I’m going to remember to take things out of the oven.”

In response to Haines’ twofold question, she added, “But Pretend Cooking Show, it is a real show, it’s a just a pretend cooking show! A real pretend cooking show.”

This isn’t the first time Garner has opened up about her kitchen fails. Last March, she spoke with PEOPLE about how often her recipes turn out to be flops.

“Sometimes I really do think about 50 percent of what I make works out. It doesn’t deter me. Honestly, my kids are pretty patient with me,” she said. “I’ll bake cookies or I’ll bake bread and I’ll forget and leave it in too long or I won’t pay attention and I’ll pull it out too early.”

What’s important is that she’s always trying something new and having fun with it, she added. “To me, baking and cooking for your family is love. They know that I care and that I’m trying my scattered best. I wish I were a type A as some of my characters have been in the past, but that is not my skill set,” she said with a laugh.

Jennifer Garner in the kitchen.GARNERISH/YOUTUBE

In one of her latest Pretend Cooking Show episodes from March, Garner taught viewers how to make pasta from The Last Thing He Told Me.

She cooked up a recipe from the Apple TV+ book-to-series adaptation called “Hannah’s Brown Butter & Sage Pasta.”

In the video, Garner read an excerpt from the book where the meal is mentioned as she gathered ingredients like sage for the recipe in her garden while holding a lantern up at night. She then showed herself making the sauce (with butter browns), boiling the pasta in a pot on her stove top and then adding all the ingredients together.

Alongside the recipe and directions for how to make the pasta, she wrote in the caption: “Sometimes, during a quiet take on #TheLastThingHeToldMe set last summer, chunks of @lauradaveauthor’s book played back in my mind like an inner monologue. I really love her writing (although I edited the heck out of this scene here, pardon me, Queen).”

“And, not for nothing, I really love this @poggiotrattoria-inspired pasta, which is ready in the time it takes to prepare the noodles,” she added.