At both Simply Fosh & Misa Braseria we are in the process of changing our menus. For our chefs the guiding principals are the availability and seasonality of the ingredients, the balance of flavours and the texture. We will also work on the difficult process of finding something new to offer.

Brillat-Savarin, the famous 19th-century French gastronome, wrote, “the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.” Whilst I agree with this over-quoted statement, I’m tempted to replace the word “dish” with “ingredient.” Getting turned on to some new or old-forgotten ingredient is normally the spark that ignites the ideas in my own culinary thought process.

Although the markets inspire me enormously and seeing any product at its optimum point of freshness is still something that gives me a real kick, if I can find something unusual or new to me, that’s when things really start to flow.

Over the last few years, the way I construct dishes has changed and I tend to start with just flavour combinations that I’m playing around with in my head, Aloe vera-lemongrass-peas-cod, not knowing where it will take me. So instead of starting with the main ingredient like sea bass or beef fillet, I start with something like a cardamom pod, pollen, aloe vera or a Tonka bean and work around that, hoping that it will lead me somewhere.

When I think of some the amazing dishes that I have enjoyed over many years in some of worlds best restaurants it also inspires me. Awesome concoctions’ such as Whole Atlantic Lobster baked in clay & verbena at La Maison de Marc Veyrat, or the superb amuse-bouche of cornet of salmon mousse with crème fraiche at Thomas Keller’s New York establishment Per se, the incredible chocolate fondant with a very liquid centre and a scoop of cardamom ice cream at Michel Bras and Ferran Adria’s bite-size cuttlefish ravioli that explode in an intense burst of coconut and ginger flavour in your mouth at El Bulli.

I had the great fortune to go to El Bulli twice during its run…and I was dazzled by the deliciousness and inventiveness of it all. Ferran Adria is possibly the most creative chef on the planet as most chefs struggle to produce one truly original dish in their entire lifetimes. Ferran can make”foam,” or “air”…because he’s Ferran, and it will be mind-blowing in his hands. But all the others, all those tortured souls trying to copy him…they should have spent that time learning to cook delicious food that expressed their own personalities.

So should chefs have the right to copy and pass off another chef’s dishes as their own?

It’s a difficult question. I know that all chefs are magpies and take ideas and inspiration from one another, particularly their mentors. I also realise that it is impossible to reinvent the wheel and be totally unique. That said, I do think it’s a little sad when some choose to copy rather than create their own individual styles and I believe we chefs all have a duty to at least try.

All this opens up the debate about when culinary influence and inspiration become imitation and if the intellectual property of chefs exists as it does in other arts. You see, for me there is a deep thought process that one goes through when you are trying to create a new dish. Sometimes, things fall into place very quickly, but occasionally it’s a long, laborious task of mixing flavours & ingredients until you find the right blend and inspiration strikes you.

The truth is I think we probably take all this far too seriously but as Escoffier said “Good food is the basis of true happiness” …who am I to argue with the great master?