Friday morning, the Park City skies were miraculously cooperative on the Main and Sky patio overlooking Old Town for Chef’s Table Festival’s first panel of the weekend, “Creativity Is the New Ingredient.” Moderated by “Bon Appétit” Editor-in-Chief Jamila Robinson, the hour-long disc ussion covered the definition of creativity and the creative process for the four participating chefs, who traveled to the Wasatch Back from Bolivia, Italy, Indonesia and Canada for the inaugural festival.  Bolivian chef Marsia Taha Mohamed Salas shared how, at her restaurant, Arami, creativity starts with cultural representation. For example, she said many people think of the Andes Mountains when they think of Bolivia, when 90% of the country’s communities are in what is called the lowlands or Amazonia. So creativity for Salas is a chance to change preconceived ideas of Bolivian cuisine. “When we travel into these communities … I feel responsible to communicate all the things that they show me,” she said. “For me, creativity is an amazing way to speak of and communicate what is going on there.” For example, Salas has piranha on her menu. Most people think of “danger” when they imagine the fish. “Where we live, that’s a completely different thing. It’s like deliciousness, it’s creativity, it’s tradition, it’s sustainability to eat the piranha,” Salas said. “I’m very grateful, as a chef, I can transform the way that people see some of the ingredients.” From left, Chef’s Table panelists include moderator Jamila Robinson, Bolivian chef Marsia Taha Mohamed Salas, Italy-based chef Jessica Rosval, Indonesia-based chef Will Goldfarb and Canadian chef Daniel Hadida. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record American pastry chef Will Goldfarb, who’s behind Room 4 Dessert in Bali, Indonesia, said he has a similar respect for existing ingredients and traditions when it comes to creating in his kitchen. “I’m a guest. I’m an economic migrant in Bali. I’m not a local. I’m there to help and get out of the way,” he said. The restaurant changes its menu twice a year, and a lot of the dishes are inspired by local ingredients or have cultural significance for team members. Now that he’s in more of a coaching role, Goldfarb said he often finds himself teaching creativity. “Creativity is a job; it’s like a mise en place job. It’s a task,” he said. “99.8% is showing up, and then there’s like two little bits where I try to be helpful. There’s like the 0.1 at the beginning and the 0.1 at the end, the magic moment when you have an idea, and then the magic moment when it’s done.” A lot of those “magic” moments involve observation, Goldfarb said. “If you walk down the street, it’s like ‘OK, there’s a cloud. I want to go make a cloud.’ That’s the idea. So being open to go to the market and get a strawberry, and looking up and being like, ‘That’s what I want,’ and then go make that,” he said. Daniel Hadida, the chef behind Pearl Morissette near Niagara Falls, Canada, said creativity is about curiosity for him. His region has been “completely divorced from” native agriculture and Indigenous culture over the last 300 years. Food has become a capitalist endeavor, so his job is to get creative about why that is. “Why is the multithousand-year history of Indigenous culture completely outside of the pale and not something that people have a relationship with?” he said. “What are we missing as a result of that? How can we think about things differently? Who can we engage in to help understand that better? What is our role within that?” Hadida admitted that generally, his creativity is brought about by the realistic pressures of running a business, and operating on deadlines. It’s that crunch time that forces action. Jessica Rosval of Al Gatto Verde in Italy had the same insight. “Creativity is not free. We can’t do whatever we want. We actually have a ton of parameters that come into play, and we need to respect those,” she said. “It needs to be edible. It needs to be seasoned. Ideally, it needs to fit within our food costs.” Respecting those parameters, like staff scheduling as another example, involves taking ego out of the equation, she said. In the end, sometimes the most creative thing can be the most simple. Jessica Rosval of Al Gatto Verde in Italy, speaking at the “Creativity Is the New Ingredient,” says she believes the most creative thing can sometimes be the most simple. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record She said thinking of creativity reminds her of a story she heard about a creative writing professor. The professor assigned his students the task of writing 200 words about a particular theme.  “The first 120 words across the entire class were all the same. Everybody was coming up with the same words, but they would only start getting into the really interesting stuff after 130, 140, 150,” Rosval said. “The creative process … can sometimes be very frustrating as we’re creating and we’re not really unblocking what we’re looking for.” All four said that’s why they also see the creative process as collaborative, where they have teammates who help contribute ideas. Salas said a lot of her inspiration comes from traveling around Bolivia and learning from the locals on their pre-Spanish traditions. But she’s very careful to avoid cultural appropriation, ensuring that all of their menus attribute techniques, styles and ingredients to the contributors.  She also admitted that more often creativity impacts the logistical side of her job, where she has to figure out sourcing and transporting ingredients from different parts of the country.  In that case, creativity is more like innovation, coming up with new ways of doing something. Rosval brought up the social impacts of the culinary industry, where people have struggled to hire and maintain staffing. She said that’s why she started a training program in 2022 to train women as chefs and give them more opportunities. Goldfarb said he’s also thought creatively about how to give people more of a pathway in the industry. “We’ll never lower the standards because that does a disservice to the people that work for us. But we could extend the runway if not everyone had the same background or expertise or training,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of talent out there if it’s given an opportunity to develop.” The post Panelists consider creativity a crucial ingredient for chef role appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less