Inspiration

As much as I enjoy working with my hands and creating my own dishes, I also spend a good deal of my time outside the kitchen thinking about food. And eating!

As a chef, one often needs external stimuli to keep the juices flowing, or sometimes just to avoid "burning out". And it doesn't always have to come from a book or a magazine, or even another chef. Sometimes art, or architecture, or even music can spark an idea.

And of course, even the best of us need solid references, whether we're trying to recall a simple dough formula or when we're dealing with highly technical issues and ingredients.

Below is a short list of many great places to eat, read, learn, relax, or just plain get inspired...

Restaurants

Grant Achatz and Alinea in Chicago

Definitely a culinary idol of mine, Pierre Gagnaire in Paris

Do I even need to mention El Bulli?

One of the coolest chefs in the South, Mike Lata and FIG in Charleston

I've had many memorable meals at Boston's Clio, courtesy of Ken Oringer

Seth and Angela Raynor's Pearl in Nantucket

I'm always blown away by Sam Mason's stuff at Tailor in NYC...

...and at the leading edge the of avant garde in NYC, Wylie Dufresne and Alex Stupak of WD-50

If you find yourself in Cleveland, visit Michael Symon and Cory Barrett at Lola

Blogs and the Like

Alex and Aki of Ideas In Food never cease to amaze me

Dorie Greenspan splits her time between NYC and Paris, and knows everything about French pastry

Read along as Laurent Gras prepares to open L2O in Chicago

Sean Brock at McCrady's in Charleston documents his forward thinking through kitchen snapshots

Rock star pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini of Jean Georges in NYC

The home of Apicius, the magazine for the latest alta gastronomia, if you read Spanish

News, Dicussion, and Reference

New Yorkers take their restaurant scene very seriously, and they read Eater

eGullet remains the most comprehensive and in-depth disucussion of all things gastronomic