Always a student, never a master

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Welcome to Creatives Anonymous, a weekly newsletter that explores what it means to be a modern-day creative through essays, interviews, and commentary.

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We often hear about how you need to “master” your craft. 

My hot take? You should never be a master at anything. 

Being a master means you have nothing left to learn. You’re content in your comfort zone with your skill level and don’t need to exceed what you already know. The work becomes so easy that it’s boring. 

As a result, we become stuck. We’re not challenged, and therefore we’re not growing. If anything, we’re regressing. 

To grow to reach our fullest potential—to become a true “master” if you will—you must constantly challenge yourself. And that comes from curiosity. 

Curiosity pushes us to try new things, push new boundaries, and test our limits. It helps us get better at our craft. It keeps our work inspired and exciting.  

And more importantly, it forces us to stay a student. 

A student always has something to learn and the yearning and motivation to do so. They know that it’s okay not to know everything and to be a beginner. They know that getting unstuck might involve taking a few steps backward to move forward—even if it means unlearning everything they thought they knew. 

Having a student mentality means we’re humble enough to know we have room to grow. It means making mistakes, experimenting, and not being afraid to try. Only then do we experience true growth and transformation. 

Today’s interview is Danny Swan. Danny is a chef in New York City, working in corporate dining. He got his start working in American BBQ at a brewpub in Colorado. He's been working in the industry for nearly a decade. Outside of work, he loves taking his dog on the trails in Riverside Park and enjoying all the bites NYC has to offer with his girlfriend. At home, he loves making Mexican food, originally taught to him by Mexican chefs back in Colorado.

How did you get interested in cooking? What drew you to it as a profession?

I kind of fell into it! I was a college dropout who needed a job and ended up loving it. It was something that I didn't know that I loved until I found myself in a kitchen. I started as a dishwasher and was initially terrified of the kitchen, thinking "How could anyone do this?!" I was terrified of a professional kitchen at first. Then, slowly over time, I realized what an adrenaline rush it is to be in a kitchen. It was the first time in my life that I was doing something that I had a natural talent for. I'm naturally curious and love learning—cooking was the perfect vehicle to feed that part of myself. What keeps drawing me to the profession is that you can never learn all of it. Every day is different and constantly changing, and that keeps me from getting bored.

As a chef, where would you say the line is between art and food? At what point is something considered just a meal versus a work of art?

I think the line is the intention behind why you're eating it or cooking it. If you're just eating something as a utility or to reach a certain calorie intake or fuel yourself, that's just a meal. If the intention of the person cooking it or your intention as the eater is greater than that, then it is art. 

You can consider almost any meal art. Is a McDonald's cheeseburger art? Probably not. But a cheeseburger that you grind your own meat and make your own buns, and you cook for someone with love and intention? That's when it starts to become art. 

I've been to Michelin star restaurants that felt like a meal, but I've also been to Michelin star restaurants that are truly a work of art. The intention of the chef or cook is something that translates to the flavor. It's also an art form that not only incorporates visual elements but also flavor elements. We eat with our eyes first, but the ability to layer flavors and pay homage to the ingredients you're working with is another layer of art. 

How do you get inspired to create new dishes and try new flavor combinations?

The thing that inspires me the most as a cook is eating! Exploring different restaurants and learning about different cultures and cuisines (and tasting them from the kitchens of people of those cultures) pushes me to work with those flavors myself. 

To be good at cooking, you have to be good at eating. Start with something you know, and then how can you morph it into something creative and different? How can you start with something like a baked potato and transform it into something that looks nothing like a baked potato, but inside is the memory of eating one? 

A lot of eating is tied to memory and memories of food throughout your life, whether it's a specific dish or cooking with your mom in the kitchen. You have to start somewhere, approachable, and start turning each element on its head. If you start with completely out-of-the-box thinking, you'll never get to something someone else wants to eat. 

What’s been a dish you’ve made that you’re really proud of and felt like really pushed you creatively?

I'd probably have to say a birria short rib with a corn puree. Everyone who has had a birria taco knows what it tastes like—it’s a personal favorite of mine. I wanted to take the elements of that and "elevate" them. 

You start with the tortilla and turn that into corn puree. Instead of shredding it, you take the beef and keep it as a whole short rib, and you take the consomme element, typically a liquid soup, and cook it down and turn it into a demi-glace. It combined more classically trained French cooking techniques and flavors of Northern Mexico. At first glance, the dish might look like a classic French red wine short rib over a potato puree, but when you take a bite, it evokes the memory of sitting outside a taco truck and eating birria tacos. 

What’s one creative project that you’re working on now?

I just wrapped up the summer menu at my job. Working in corporate dining, it's sometimes hard to push the envelope creatively because we serve mostly buffet style. This round, it pushed the creativity in our plated small bites and used some of my favorite NY restaurants as jumping points. Dishes like seared duck breast or ahi tuna aguachile are not things you'd often see in corporate cafes, but I feel it's how we set ourselves apart from other cafes. We serve food in a cafeteria style, but I'm always trying to find ways to elevate each dish so that the only thing in the cafeteria is the setting. 

Now I am considering the fall menu, starting with researching seasonal produce available in the American Northeast. We just expanded our cafe and have a new kitchen with more equipment that we didn't have access to before, so it will be fun to write this next menu knowing our new capabilities. We are also working on weekly hot sauces that pair with one of our concepts in the cafe. I'm a spice addict, so it's been very fun to R&D custom hot sauces.

What’s one piece of advice you have for any fellow creative?

I have three key pieces of advice that have helped me a lot in my career: 

1) Always stay curious and never get to a point where there is nothing else you can learn. Even if the source of that is not traditionally where you learn from. 

2) If you are creative and do your creative work as a career, make sure to carve out time to remind yourself why you love doing it. Getting jaded or frustrated by food is easy, especially in a kitchen, which is not always an easy environment to work in. I like to take time each week to make something small-scale and slow-paced at home, connect myself to the food, and remind myself why I love cooking. 

3) Know when to stop. You can always add a pinch more of this or that, but you need to know when to put down the salt, step back, and be satisfied with your final product.

Creative Corner

• 🎞️ What I’m Consuming: Call Her Alex, Alex Cooper’s documentary on Hulu, and Sacred Alaska, a documentary about Orthodoxy in Alaska.

• 💡 What I’m Loving: This marker organizer for my Tombow Dual Brush Pens.

• 🎨 What I’m Working On: Still editing my photos….

• 💭 Weekly Musing:

Thank you 💕

If you liked this newsletter, I’d love it if you could forward it to someone who you think would like it, too!

I’m so grateful for all of your support!

Alexa Phillips is a writer, brand strategist, and multi-passionate creative. She is the founder of Bright Eyes Creative, a Seattle-based brand consultancy and media company. Connect with her and learn more about her work.