15*15 CREATIVITY EXERCISE SERIES — 12

Create a menu of 15 inventive dishes

This is your opportunity to go on creative adventures of a chef

In this series (15*15), I design and present you 15 adventures and challenges in 15 days. I am developing these challenges in real-time — I hope you do enjoy and benefit from these exercises.

The goal of these challenges is to help you expand your imagination and exercise your muscles of creativity. This is the 12th day and 12th installment of that series.

In this challenge, imagine that you are a chef. You do have your own restaurant. You will invent or create your signature menu.

How will you do this?

Please check out the following resources for guidance and inspiration:

I hope you are inspired by these resources.

Are you ready for this exciting challenge?

Your challenge is to create a menu of 15 inventive dishes.

Your goal will be to brainstorm and create the titles and descriptions of each dish. Try to think of a short story for each dish.

Your Challenge: Create a menu of 15 inventive dishes

In this exercise, you will think like a chef — you can even be a celebrity chef who has his or her own Michelin stars.

So, in essence, you are creating your own artistic cuisine. What could be your signature dishes? What is the story behind each? What is unique about each dish? What is the recipe?

Try to create the following for each dish:

• The title of the dish (make it interesting and creative)
• A short description of the dish (think of it as a menu item)
• What is the short story of this dish? (what is exciting or unique or interesting here?)
• Think of the recipe (imagine yourself cooking or experimenting with it)
• Imagine how the plate would look like (try to visualize it as an artwork)

Feel free to draw, visualize, or doodle your ideas.

For the purposes of this exercise, please do not delve into too much detail for each dish. Aim for 4–5 minutes of thinking/brainstorming/writing/doodling for each dish. You do not need to develop all the details fully. Try to create the minimum viable dish. If you want to go deeper, leave it for later. If you prefer, you can even cook it or experiment with it (iterate) in your kitchen.

You will benefit a lot from exercising your creative muscles and getting out of your comfort zone. If you do the exercise above, you will strengthen your creative muscles 15 times. We need to give our brain creative challenges every day. If we make this a habit, the process will help us rewire our brains to be more open to creativity.

It is important to start small and treat these exercises as play. They are small experiments in imagination. They work much better if you stop judging your ideas and obsessing over them. All projects start with small steps. Small actions are all that you need to get started on these projects. You will instantly jump in the water without thinking. Thinking too much hurts your creativity because it paralyzes you. Every creative or entrepreneurial act starts with taking a leap of faith into the unknown. Each time you jump into the unknown makes you more adventurous, open, and creative.

A curation of best documentaries on cooking and celebrity chefs

I will finish today’s post with a list of wonderful videos and trailers on food. All capture the love and passion of food beautifully. These will appeal to all your senses. They will inspire and elevate you to new heights!

Life is short. Why not make it sweet through our joy of food?

Sharing and appreciating food (and joy & laughter) with your beloved ones is one of the best ways to increase your happiness in the short lives we have on Earth.

I hope we can learn from the secrets, passions, loves, and joys of these dedicated chefs.

See you in the 13th episode of this journey tomorrow.

Fahri

Fahri Karakas is the author of the Self-making Studio. You can explore more here.