grant achatz on creativity
From his intro to the Alinea Cookbook.
People like to think the creative process is romantic. The artist drifts to sleep at night, to be awakened by the subliminal echoes of his or her next brilliant idea. The truth, for me at least, is that creativity is primarily the result of hard work and study. The light bulb goes off unexpectedly at times, a consequence of associating everything I see, smell, hear and touch to food. … The smell of a woman’s perfume leads me to construct a dish around the emotionally powerful aspect of scent. And the accidental shattering of a wineglass makes me wonder how I can make raspberry that fragile. But more often, the new dishes I come up with are the product of methodology rather than inspiration.
More on the cookbook itself soon.