How do you get your ideas? When do the new things to try come to mind?
We met a chef of a new, leading restaurant in Lisbon. I asked him how he gets ideas about new recipes? He paraphrased Picasso who said "when inspiration comes, she better find you busy."[1]. For him, ideas start in the market and continue to the kitchen. The "where" of creativity is important; you can go there.
His rule for his staff is that if you see something new in the market, you must buy it. Then you must figure it out and try different ways of preparing it.
I asked about a new dish on the menu that caught us by surprise with tastes we had never tasted before. He said he imagined it late one night after the second seating left; it was 2 am. In 15 minutes he conceived it and wrote it down: a milk skin crisp with baked yeast crumble and pumpkin purée tempura. The staff said no; they did not see it working; it was too far out there. But they tried it. And customers loved it. So it found its way to the menu.
That's a 15 minute innovation. His team tried it, and it worked. That kind of openness to experiment, even to try that which you imagine not making sense, initially, but being brave and daring, doing it anyway. |