Constraints Force Creativity, July 27, 2006 — This is not an original thought or observation. But I did come to this realization on my own. As often happens, once you notice something, it seems to appear everywhere. Much more likely is that I never noticed this truism until I learned the lesson myself, and then all of a sudden I started noticing what had always been there in the first place.

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."

- Mark Twain

Unlimited freedom in fact negates creativity and creates laziness. The lack of  rules or constraints make it easy to be random. Whether it's writing an overly long blog post because we can't afford an editor, or putting wasabi aioli on everything, the concept remains the same. Part of the marvel of Shakespeare's sonnets are that they must be fourteen lines and in iambic pentameter. Slate points out that some of the best writing at the New York Times is in the shortest amount of space - the TV listings. Examples abound. So why is it that the first thing many chefs do when they get their own restaurant is take a meandering and undisciplined tour of every favorite dish, ingredient, and technique they'v ever encountered. Freedom often kills focus.

I know that Chefs are eager to exercise their independence by putting out their own personal cuisine - making their mark as it were. Why in our culture are we more interested in novelty than quality? Chefs respond to it trying to come up with their own hybridizations, fusions, and unique visions. Foodies don't help when they lambaste restaurants for copying dishes from other restaurants. When was the last time you heard a chef open up their first restaurant and proudly proclaim that their food would be perfectly executed soulful traditional Italian food from Emilia Romagna (or wherever).

It's funny, because when chefs get the top job they likely feel that its' the first time they can finally stretch and explore. But often the thing that got them the top job in the first place is focus. Having a specific role and doing it well is what gets you advanced in the kitchen. Learning comes slowly. Over time. It's not necessarily a function of being brilliant. It's about experimentation, and iteration, and tasting the food, and comparing that taste to the picture in your head. Some of the best chefs have the ability to picture flavor in their heads. I believe this is the exception rather than the rule.

How about new head chefs making their mark through restraint, a focus on tradition, or even heaven forbid - unequalled hyper-consistent focused execution and incredible attention to detail. I don't care what kind of food that chef is making. I'll eat it. But when they're busy trying to create their own style instead of paying attention to details, quality suffers. It's not just distraction, I've talked about it before, but you have to know how the food is supposed to taste in order try and execute with perfection.

There are very few restaurants I've  eaten at where the chef can both truly create their own style as well as execute incredibly consistently. Daniel Boulud comes to mind. On the one hand you may be surprised at my choice, as he is clearly playing within the framework of modern French haute cuisine. But Boulud (or now his Chefs de Cuisine) show seemingly very little restraint when it comes to the number of elements that make up each dish. The more elements, the more variables. The more variables, the more opportunity there is for failure and inconsistency both in coherence and execution. But somehow Boulud makes a symphony out of the numerous ingredients that comprise each item on the menu. Actually, it's more like a string quartet where each instrument is actually four identical instruments playing in perfect unison so it seems like there's only one perfect lush contributor.

The fact remains, most chefs are not Boulud, or Wylie Dufresne who exhibits the same skills in a completely different way. In fact, almost none are. The ability to go outside  the boundaries in ways that remain coherent for customers is limited to those that learned to stay within those same boundaries and execute consistently year over year over year. In the immortal words of Uncle Ben (not the rice guy), "with great power comes great responsibility". More chefs should heed his sage advice.