Creative Cuisine

Creativity requires permeability and an intense want for knowledge of both the outside world and our inner selves. If this knowledge of the outside world comes from a permanent attention and from a genuine, insatiable interest in the world (its people, history, present and future), knowledge of our inner selves is based on a constant process of self-observation and questioning, of meditation and thought about understanding and interpreting the outside world, of attributing meaning and identifying feelings, instincts and emotions.

Knowledge and investigation stimulate creativity and refine intuition. Creativity spurs freedom! The absence of prejudice and the ability to believe while constantly questioning are essential for the development of creative thought.

Cooking expresses different moments of knowledge, learning and reasoning, and communicates not only the evolution of technique, but also its creator's maturity, personality and soul.

To create is an act of freedom with countless possibilities of expression. In the kitchen, ingredients, techniques, technology, recipes, preparations and concepts are at creativity's service, transforming it in a world of infinite possibilities. A dish can take us to other places, landscapes, times and histories. It can make us laugh or cry. It can indeed reveal an ingredient, potentiate its flavour and texture, or (with technique, technology and/or the unprecedented combination of flavours), even reveal to us an absolutely new dimension about an ingredient we thought we knew, making us see further and stirring up perceptions, intimacy, feelings and emotions.

Whenever we think and ponder, we're experiencing a double perception phenomenon – while we feel and become aware of a particular state of mind, we come across an exterior landscape that converges with our inner scape. For me, this convergence is the most accurate result of interpreting the reality I feel and witness.

José Avillez