The top isn't a mess of food. This is largely dependent on what you cook. Fish skin sometimes gets cooked on, glaze bubbles and chars, oil lights on fire and the top surface chars. Something like shrimp, tomato, or sausage will be fairly clean though, and nothing will cook on to the top.
Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairment speaking) or Wernicke's area (impairing understanding, damage in rear parietal/temporal region in the left hemisphere)
Language function is primarily located on the dominant side of the brain, which is the left side of the brain for right handed people, and the right side of the brain for many left handed people. Therefore, a temporal lobe stroke is more likely to produce aphasia if it occurs on the dominant side of the brain.