Creativity in cooking is a universally accessible form of pleasure. Regardless of the rarity of their ingredients or the technological advancement of gadgets in their kitchens, the combination of foods in interesting ways can be done by anyone around the world. Creativity is a process of trial and error, and provided you don’t harm yourself or others, experimentation in the kitchen is both harmless and hugely rewarding. With the bizarre concoctions and combinations of flavors that are adorning $100 plates in the top-tier restaurants of the world, it’s all about creativity in cooking. Who is to say that anything is off-limits or taboo? Culinary creativity is perhaps the most accommodating and flexible form of art. As scientific techniques continue to infiltrate the kitchens of the world, the variables and opportunities will only expand further.
For some professionals who spend their lives surrounded by creativity, sometimes even the framework needs to be reinvented. Ferran Adria closed the doors to elBulli on July 30th of 2011, claiming that it had “completed its journey as a restaurant.” It was arguably at the peak of its popularity, thousands of people still annually clamored for reservations, but he decided to move forward, and to remain on the cutting edge of the cooking world, by not cooking. That paradoxical statement reflects the man himself. elBulli will re-open in 2014, as a creativity center.
Although the descriptions of the future elBulli Foundation are somewhat vague and mysterious, it will apparently be an artistic institute dedicated to developing every element of the culinary process, as well as going beyond cooking. It will be a heaven for architects, philosophers, designers, and chefs to explore the continuing development of cooking as an element of our society and species.
Given this definition, it sounds like a mystical culinary utopia, where the most influential and gifted minds in cooking and restaurant theory can get together, swap ideas, and work on experiments and projects. In other words, it sounds like an artists’ commune of old, in the likes of which some of the most important discoveries and creative movements had their nascent steps. In some ways, it seems as though the creative revolution of cooking that is now occurring was delayed by almost a century, when compared to the groundbreaking changes made in other art forms during the same period.
However, the relationship between artist and audience is so much more critical in cooking, that change must happen slowly, if at all. Adria’s lack of patience with the lackadaisical evolution of cooking allowed him to speed up the process, at least in terms of his own restaurant. The subsequent creative achievements that occurred in his workshop were profound, to say the least. There is no telling what might come next from the brain trust of Adria and elBulli, but it will almost certainly capture the attention and appetite of the world.
Do not be afraid to look within other disciplines of thought for inspiration, even if those areas are traditionally opposed or unrelated to your own creative field. The pace of general progress is set by other people and society as a whole, but this does not mean that you must fall in line. Charging ahead makes you a leader. Don’t worry about getting too far ahead; there will always be people behind you. Don’t worry about throwing out an entire system of thought and starting over. Who knows, maybe we don’t really need dining rooms. Learn more about the creativity in cooking only at the University Canada West, one of the best universities in Canada, offering various business and management related programs.
Tim Scott
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