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 isn't centralized in one area of the brain - certain regions have certain tasks, such as motor function or comprehending spoken speech. And thus, if you cannot speak due to having malfunctioning vocal cords, it should leave your language comprehension intact. I even doubt if the area responsible for motor functions required for speech will be taken over by the rest of the brain, but I do not know this for sure.