Every ingredient must audition for the plate. Every technique must audition for its use in a recipe. And we must be tough critics in the selection process. In order to create a great dish, we must push ourselves to be exhaustive in our analysis and absolute in our selections.
Adaptations
It takes time to concentrate flavors
Cup Cakes: a micro bakery
Wonder
The adjacent process
Do we have to understand to appreciate? And do you have to appreciate to understand?
You can't teach a new dog old tricks
Why does this dish need X?
Amazing what we will try in a game, when in life we will not
Flavor Foundation
Great flavors remain Great
What we want is not what we need
Form Creates Function
We like what we know
If it ain’t broke, Break It!
The Failing Process is Not Fun, it is necessary
Discovery is Blind
No one wants to wake up and say, “boy I hope I fail today”
Tripping over words slows down the process
I love how clam chowder is yet another example of pork and clams
There is no reason why you cannot create anything
My plan is not to plan
We don’t always know what we’ve discovered
The questions we ask change the way we think
A wall is a moment to pause and catch your breath, and figure out how to use it
Commit to being great
Interested in Understanding
The wonder of the Ordinary
We look to the read option in the kitchen
Disheveled elegance
The different is not better and vice-versa
Playing Better than Ever
Interaction of Flavor
Try it first, then tell me if it works or not
If removing water concentrates flavor, why are we constantly cooking ingredients in water
Gaining pleasure through discovery
Transparency in Delivery
Thinking through the steps
You Can’t Fake Timing
The key is trying to win games while getting on the same page—Peyton Manning
You need to create to be creative
Does Practical Matter?
You can’t chase what you don’t know
Craft and Purpose
Capture, organize, share/connect
Your notebook is only as good as what you put in it
Old isn't new, it's just unknown
Simplify the problem to its root cause
What are your building blocks
Looking for Elevation
You Just Have to Taste Things
"Clean up the minor details! That’s how you get great"--Bruce Arians
Passionate about the minutiae
Darkness and a pound of Bacon
Trying to prove yourself
Capture create collaborate
Got breadcrumbs?
The need for individual flavors
We create our own resources
Leave out the parts that people skip
Stay out of the way (rather appear to have done nothing)
Amazing how we like challenges
The gift of discovery
We don’t see the instructions right in front of us
Are You Chicken Enough
An excuse to cook
Cooking delicious food is not a style
Make waves where it matters
Handle it like it’s a work of art
Act like you’ve been there before
The other of invention
A restaurant is a combination of technical elegance and a lot of emotion—Michael Anthony
(How to) organize experience?
“Working tirelessly and relentlessly on my craft to unearth the diamond to be. The preparation determines the outcome. BTM.” (The Colts’ motto this season: Building The Monster).—Daniel Adongo
Inspired by Technique
Interesting how our first response is to add our own opinion/thought/twist/suggestion rather than listening, absorbing and contemplating
The results can change the direction
Explore the delicate nature of food
Go to where the color is
A need to get it right
You search, you break, you rebuild
Openness and Rejection
I’m ok building sentences like thoughts, piece by piece
About Space and Light
The right angles are essential
We are often Blinded by expectations and miss the genius in front of us
Is it better to Create or improve?
Ingredient Sampling
Improving the Platform
At one point there was no authentic pizza
It's not about the answers It's about the directions we are going
If you’re gonna cook, cook
Ideas in Food Bank
If you smell something burning, it is (did)
An Idea Club
you need to read the lines for the information, not between them
"it's not what I was expecting" seems to be our calling card
we make lists so we can cross things off
eliminating something is evolving.
Not really sold on the line "It's just what we do"
It is the work of others that makes us better
Amazed at what is supposed to be straightforward and what is deemed complex worthy
Authenticity and Originality are Two enormous roadblocks
Keeping it all in the family
Putting pieces together
Make it a star
What else can we actually do?
Look for the idea inside
Always a race to the starting line
As good as an idea is, you must always be ready to throw it away.
If you're not looking to learn, what are you doing
I’m distracted by distractions
Basic is not easy Simple is not fast
An openness to anything, not everything
The Day Doesn’t Matter
You have to be happy with your own style
We tell stories to share experiences
2 things to know when you are in charge: know it, and be willing to delegate
curate, edit, choose your sources carefully
We Learn Through the Process
When everyone does the same thing we become bored
The Subject is the Canvas
It's not just where you look, but how you look
Algorithm based discovery misses some of the point of searching
Improving the workspace
You can't bottle connections
Making it complicated is easy
We fill the space we are given, how to not do so
We all have obstacles, it's how we face them that matters
Connecting disparate: ingredients, ideas, methods
It's strange seeing leaders follow
Chasing greatness
Take the time to make the modifications
The difference between classic and dated
A story is only as good as its connections/transitions
The same results may be achieved with different processes
Cost Controls Choices
People want to hear the stories that haven't been told
“If you teach the concepts well, the players will understand it. Once they know the concepts, then it’s easy for them to execute. It looks complicated, but it really isn’t.”—Rex Ryan
Why is the voice of reason so unreasonable?
A willingness and openness to destroying an ingredient
No ingredient or form of an ingredient is sacred, look at all the possibilities
“Cooking is based on common sense,” she used to say. “Don’t use unnecessary ingredients, don’t cover up flavor with spices, it is just as important to leave something out, as it is to put something in.” Marcella Hazan
It is very difficult to create without a purpose, I'd say impossible
Often times obstacles are not walls, they're white picket fences
I’m all for doing it wrong as long as it gets me to right (the end justifies the means?)
Start with a Model, then break it
The juxtaposition of flavors, textures ideas and techniques is easily overlooked
“the act of going beyond the obvious, is where innovation lies.” –Seth Godin
if you're gonna change the world, might as well change it chef
Creating is Fun
What are you willing to do, and why are you willing to do it?
Limitations are Opportunities
The Artist Outside
Searching to Connect it All
I have to make it really complicated before I can simplify it
Looked at for Inspiration, overlooked for accolades
Get the Words Down
The first level of Why is relatively easy, its when you dive deeper that the Why's become more difficult to explain
Apparently Science is like salt most observers use it to season to taste in actuality it is best served as a calculated ratio
Cooks adore Challenges
If you could've done that, why didn't you?
My creative zeal is fighting with my practical sensibilities
If you are trying to do your own thing, realize your going to need a lot of help, isn't it ironic
You have to ask the questions
If you worked in other kitchens you are not self taught
Create the dish, develop the sauce
Google doesn't have the answers it just helps you sort through the possibilities
There is always a punch line
Flourize anything
Changing Form Changes Function
We can make everything from anything the fun part is making something from (almost) nothing
If you're looking for a pat on the back start by learning how to stretch your arm
Connecting Curiosity
If you can find a flaw then you can find a solution
Those that want to improve learn how
You Either Get it or You Don’t
Tradition is a starting point
We are here to change the world, not to win awards
we can have good ideas and good flavors, greatness comes when we may combine the two
Forward is only a direction, not the right one
Classic versus Dated
Quicken the mind
Opportunity in repetition
Discovery for the first time
Delight in Discovery
Sameness sucks
Someone else is always going to do what you are doing, the difference is you
See Breakthroughs
Ideas flourish in the fringe
The importance of a Lesson Plan
Culturing Creativity
If you connect all the dots you get a completely full page instead of blank, need to know what to connect and what not too
It's not about changing the way you think it's about being open to the possibilities
A continued driving force is a need/desire to utilize everything in an ingredient
Mess Things Up
Those that want to improve learn how
We need less how to books and more do books
If you can find a flaw then you can find a solution
Share what you know and learn
We are able to create more when we look at less
Combine the best of what you know with the best of what you like
You either get it or you don't, until you step back
Be your own benchmark
In what way is this idea smart?
Ignore Boundaries
Look beyond boundaries for ideas
We don't need breathing room we need to get in better shape
Know how, intuition and creativity
Create Interesting
We learn by doing
It should read, don't tell me I'm wrong, show me why and teach me how to improve
Interesting how chefs go to learn grandmothers secrets and home cooks look to chefs for secrets
You get squashed in the Middle
get the ideas down first, then move them around into the order you like.
There is no solid ground, just levels of balance
It is a rare day when we have the opportunity to support the creative vision of another
those who want to know figure out how to learn
Teaching Old Recipes New Tricks
The first lemming was brave, the second one stupid
It's not that everyday is a big idea, It's that everyday there is an idea which contributes to the big ideas
Use your own skills on yourself
Begin by working with ingredients on the most basic level.
In creating complexities we miss the simplicity
Don't tell me why I'm wrong, teach me how to improve
There has to be a want in order to achieve
Making your own difference
If you've done it do it better
Creating a creative
Comparison connections
The sources of inspiration
"What's important now?"
Cooking wasn't created it was observed
Connecting observations
Excellent isn't perfect
You can only be where you are
Inspiration takes you down paths you wouldn’t have seen before
Incremental Improvements and mess with it
Asking the right questions
Challenge traditions
What will we cook up next?
Explore everyday ideas, tear apart and build back together
When you move obstructions it's amazing what you can see
Nothing is designed with the clean up in mind
The trick is knowing when to go back to the drawing board, and when to use someone else's idea—Hugh Macleod
All traditions were once progressive
Quiet refinement
Celebrating the Ordinary
Keeping it all in the family
“I think it’s important that we learn how to draw and to make something and to do it directly,” he says, “to understand the properties you’re working with by manipulating them and transforming them yourself.”-Jony Ive -- stop to notice a small, quiet connection.
Everything is a learned process
Failure is not a permanent condition it is a stepping stone for: growth, learning, exploring, persevering
If a chef puts 1 or 50 things on a plate our job as diners is to see how well the combination tastes, not to say use more or less
One Idea at a Time
Put the flavors where you want them
Cleaning is as important as creating
The stain on my tongue
What is a layer of flavor?
Exploring influences
Anything against a wall collects dust
As soon as you discard authentic anything becomes possible
Everything is a learned process
What can we do that has not been done before
“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be,” Tom Landry once said.
Unique and Authentic
Take problems from the outer level in
“It is true of any subject that the person that succeeds in anything has the realistic viewpoint at the beginning and [knows] that the problem is large and that he has to take it a step at a time and that he has to enjoy the step-by-step learning procedure.” Jazz Pianist Bill Evans
Newness is elegantly combining old things
Understand the problem to enjoy the process
A Willingness to Make Anything Happen
Willingness to keep doing something until you get it honed
Note to self, any liquid that tastes good can make something else taste even better.
Clarification is an Element of Design
What are you willing to do to achieve the desired effect?
Creating with Purpose
Refinement is more about feel than looks
A well constructed cookie
Sorrow is an opportunity for happiness
Underdog was a superhero just like white chocolate
Often times the fix is not the solution
When you wear it on your sleeve be ready for it to get dirty
A brilliant elegant and simple solution
Disciplined choices
It's good to miss out and miss opportunities
I make things
Clarification is an element of design
My only plan is to plan for change
Critiquing with dynamite
Understanding your errors to make less trials
Think minimalist in your "entree" style plates
We all have problems to solve
The most important ideas lie within the mundane
The focus on discovery means looking at a lot of history
Even Chefs Like Recipes
When we change how we lead those that follow change too
There is always something to fix
Pay Attention…how much does it cost
The difficulty with ideas is they can eat at you non stop until they are brought to light
By not knowing we can discover
They are not secrets, there is just lots of stuff we haven't learned yet
It's only the best ever until somebody makes it better
In today's environment of exact and precise cooking, elements of chaos are sought out to keep the ideas fresh and cooks on their toes. The combination of precision and chaos leads to great achievements and greater failures. It is the juxtaposition of these disparate principles that excites us on a daily basis.
Years Past
February 15, 2014
February 15, 2013
February 15, 2012
February 15, 2011
February 15, 2010
February 15, 2009
February 15, 2008
February 15, 2007
February 15, 2006
February 15, 2005
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work
Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook
Gluten Free Flour Power: Bringing Your Favorite Foods Back to the Table
