I was scrolling through Instagram this morning and came across a post about a sourdough hotel in Sweden where people can leave their sourdough starters to be cared for while they are on vacation. My first reaction was to chuckle at something that seemed a bit naïve. I mean how large is the audience for this service? But then I put aside my initial reaction and realized that what we sometimes discount can open the door for something that just might be the right product, at the right time, in the right place. Now, I’m not suggesting a chain of sourdough hotels or expanding it to include other forms of fermentation, but I am encouraging everyone to keep their ideas alive and most importantly, never stop thinking and dreaming.

Are we giving enough time to the process of dreaming or are we so wrapped up in the day-to-day challenges and “crisis of the moment” that we leave too little time to just let our minds and imaginations work? I have often mentioned a discussion I had with the spouse of a friend who told me once that her husband had 100 ideas a month and one of them was brilliant. The lesson of course is that you never know where ideas will take you, but the process is one that provides an opportunity for a great one to take form.

Richard Melman of Lettuce Entertain You fame is notorious for feeding dreams, for storytelling, and for building a restaurant concept from those stories. Each idea finds itself in a file folder until the right location is discovered -then he jumps into action by bringing the story to life through menu, décor, team building, training, and marketing. Some of those ideas never find a home but continue to exist as incentive to drive the dreaming process. The lesson is, you never know when the concept to change everything will come into play.

Even Thomas Edison, a master dreamer, found excitement in always thinking and testing the waters of innovation. He reportedly had far more failures than successes, but his successes changed the world.

“I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas, who actually does nothing… Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

– Thomas Edison

Sometimes ideas are spontaneous and come to people out of necessity like the Buffalo Chicken Wing that can be found, in some version, in probably 25% of the restaurants from coast to coast. Sometimes they are driven by customer requests or complaints and are viewed as a solution to a problem. Such is the case with the modern potato chip (Saratoga Chip):

“Invented in 1853 by George Crum, a chef at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, after a customer complained about thick and soggy French fries. Crum sliced potatoes extremely thin, fried them to a crisp. The customer loved them.”

A simple idea built out of anger at a customer that evolved into a multi-billion-dollar industry. The lesson here is pay attention to ideas no matter where they come from.

“Nothing happens unless first we dream”

– Carl Sandburg 

So, the question is: how much time are you dedicating to the dreaming process? Are you giving yourself the opportunity to “discover” the next great idea? And then, are you willing to invest the time and effort to test the waters and bring that idea to fruition? Are you willing to take a chance at failure in order to find the brilliant idea that leads to success?

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions”

– Albert Einstein 

Chefs and restaurateurs are incredibly busy people working to be successful. But success, real success without allowing the mind to drift, analyze, ferment ideas, test the waters and sometimes fail with pleasure can wind up stuck in a constant loop of sameness. Feed your brain with the freedom to go in a million different directions. Focus is important when a task has begun and deadlines demand it, but so too is “dream time” that pushes us forward.

Chefs and restaurateurs should give themselves permission to dream and look at life through the lens of “why not?” Keep a pad with you, tuck it in your pocket, make sure a pen is always handy, and when those flashes of “why not” or “what if” come to mind – stop for a few seconds and write it down. Dedicate a portion of time each week to go back and read those thoughts with a clear mind and see what sticks. Some thoughts will be immediately discarded but others just might be brilliant.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

“Work Hard and be Kind” – Dick Cattani

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting

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