Tuesday Musings #07 — A Little Pinch of This and That

I don’t cook as much as I would like to. I always have the best time cooking, mostly because I love to eat! Also because I think of it as an art. I love combining ingredients and making something delicious that’s better than simply the sum of its parts.?

This weekend I was thinking about cooking vs creative advertising. I think of the line that Brett always says: “In the first creative round you are the chef; in all other rounds of revisions, you’re the waiter.”

I want to push this cooking metaphor further. Hopefully it won’t fall flat like a sad souffle (a cooking simile to describe my cooking metaphor – I’m out of control!).

Just a couple weeks ago for Thanksgiving, my family had started a base gravy, and while it was tasty, it was a little flat and bland. The assignment, as it was presented to me, was to spice it up. Easy, right?

In the cartoon version of this scenario, I would be waving my arms madly over the pan, my long hair covering my wild eyes, throwing pinches of this and that here and there as a cloud of spice rises above the stove. Bam! Taste it. Presto! It’s delicious.?

But what if it’s not? What if it’s too salty? If I added just four ingredients, how do I know which of those four spices made it salty? Thank you, Captain Obvious, for saying “salt” out loud to yourself. So… what if it’s too sour? Too astringent??

You get it. When you tweak a creative process, take the time to taste after each addition or correction. It will build your experience and understanding of what each ingredient can and does affect.?

The joy of cooking, to me, is pursuing a path that leads to something unexpectedly delicious. Obviously the goal is to make EVERYTHING I cook delicious, just like your goal is to make every poster, every video, every digital deliverable beautiful. What little pinch can you add that will make it unexpectedly beautiful?

love,

jpp