Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef's Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond

Life is filled with wow moments; those moments when we see something new that really impresses us and gets our attention. These wow moments make our personal lives better and more interesting. The businesses that create these wow moments, or innovations, are typically more successful. But, what is the key to creating these innovations? How are innovations born? How can simple connections between various things be made so that something new is created? Are there steps to creating new innovations and wow moments? The answers to these questions are in this book. Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef's Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond is a book about learning to innovate using the culinary arts as inspiration. More specifically, using a little known dessert - The Knickerbocker Glory - as a model to teach a simple innovation process and guide the reader through the journey from stated purpose to wow moment. The text, infographics and insets explore how great ideas can be created, shows the importance of getting ideas off paper and into reality and discusses the importance of a team effort in innovation. The book rolls back the curtain on the specific steps to use when implementing any type of innovation program.  Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef's Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond starts by introducing The Knickerbocker Glory, a tall, layered ice cream concoction eaten with a very long spoon. Although today it is seen as a classic British ice cream dessert, its origins may not be truly British but American. But what makes this dessert a great story and model for innovation? It is the story of a reinvention. The American sundae, call the Knickerbocker, reinvented for a British audience. And since the original recipe for The Knickerbocker Glory has not been recorded, it is an ideal model from which to explore innovation because of all the possibilities it represents. With a basic understanding of The Knickerbocker Glory, the book walks the reader through a process from which innovations can be born. The discussion starts with the simple steps a chef might take to create something new in the kitchen, covering the importance of having a goal, where inspiration for such a goal might come from and how experimentation is used to reach the goal. From there, a deeper definition of innovation is revealed and the six steps of innovation called the "...ates" are defined. They are Contemplate and State; Stimulate; Formulate, Ideate, Create and Iterate. A description and instruction for each step is given in the book. The "...ates" are then applied to The Knickerbocker Glory model; examples of how each step can be applied to create something new are provided. The journey to wow moments starts with stating the purpose. The book then details how a variety of sources of inspiration (both related and unrelated) can be found and applied to The Knickerbocker Glory model and makes the point that good stimulus and inspiration is the foundation for new and richer ideas. Examples discussed include how fusion cuisine, molecular gastronomy or the more far-fetched Apple Computer Company might be leveraged to make a new Knickerbocker Glory. Following this, the origin of The Knickerbocker Glory is used to show how inspiration can be turned into new ideas. The importance of making these ideas into real "products" and repeating them until they are perfected is also discussed. Finally, the book discusses the importance of innovating as a team and details a few insights about cooking that demonstrate that even small changes to a recipe can bring about big changes to a dish, illustrating that it might not have to be something big to bring about something that is very innovative.