Lawson has stated that she believes cooking is "a metaphor for life", in the sense that "When you cook, you need structure [...] but just as importantly you need to be able to loosen up and go with the flow [...] you must not strive for perfection but, rather, acknowledge your mistakes and work out how you can rectify them". She has described cooking as "a way of strengthening oneself", in the sense that "being able to sustain oneself is the skill of the survivor".