Part of the journey of going through one dietary programme is taking a break from added sugars. This means that eating at most places will be challenging and you will need to be precise about what you want. A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be eating at a restaurant in Tallinn and asked them to find foods on the menu with no added sugar and make me a meal. The waitress called a chef from the kitchen, who was very enthusiastic, involved and excited to be able to do something different from the standard menu. Together we excitedly thought of all the options to make as we looked at the menu. We were both excited.
Soon I had myself a wonderful beef stew, with eggs cooked in beetroot stock, all melt-in-your-mouth and deliciously sugar-free. The price of the meal was the same as the beef steak would otherwise have cost with various (sugary) purees, but the meat was twice as much. This picture is below left. The experience called back.
Now a few days ago I went to the restaurant again and showed the waitress a picture of what I had last time and asked for the same. The waitress came back after a while and said the kitchen was not willing to do it. If they did, it would be for double the price. I accepted the situation and said I wouldn’t pay double (I understand that meat is more expensive than mashed potatoes or carrots) and that less meat would be fine, but let them put an egg on the side.
The food arrived as pictured on the right. The egg was just a boiled egg. Everything tasted good, but there was no experience and of course my stomach was empty. And then the back story came out – last time there was a chef on duty, this time there was no chef on duty and the chefs just did what was on the menu and, of course, faithfully did not run the risk of selling the more expensive food cheaper. Fair enough!
On the initiative of the waiter, the chef and the chefs on duty had been able to talk to each other that very evening, and had agreed that creativity would be very welcome next time.
Hopefully in the future, creativity will really spread from the chef. Ultimately, the experience was a very good one, as it revealed a very important fact about how a top manager dares to be creative, enjoys creativity and creating a pleasurable experience for all parties involved (employee, owner, customer) and how in the system, hired employees (including managers) often have a willingness to follow the rules from school days and a fear of getting lost in the creative process. This permission to err and create only needs to be opened up and given permission.
Maybe: creativity just needs to be said at work sometimes: yes, you can be creative, and that just makes the work and the result enjoyable. Automated programs are not creative, people are creative and want to be creative.
