What Every Designer Can Learn from Watching Cutthroat Kitchen

It’s no lie. I’m a terrible cook.

While my culinary skills are limited to burning making toast and chopping vegetables and fruit, I’m strangely drawn to television shows about food. One of our family’s favorite television shows is Cutthroat Kitchen, hosted by Alton Brown, where four chefs compete against one other while preparing dishes amidst inflicted sabotages.

When people ask me about what it’s like to be a designer, I reply: “Have you seen Cutthroat Kitchen?”. With the exception of handling and preparing food, Alton Brown’s television show nicely doubles as a metaphor for a day in the life of a designer.

In that metaphor, Alton Brown would serve as the project manager while the judges (Jet Tila, Simon Majumdar, Antonia Lafaso) would represent the client.

Like every episode of Cutthroat Kitchen:

• Work starts out with a design briefing (usually via phone, email or in person).
• There’s a limited budget to work with and a time constraint that’s usually very tight.
• There’s a limited number of resources to work with (software, hardware, technical expertise in an area).
• There’s the possibility of something going wrong (aka the famous Cutthroat “sabotage”) when you least expect it (hard drive crashes, corrupt files, etc.).
• There are design constraints, either supplied by the client or imposed by both the tools and skill set you have to work with.
• The ability to adapt and problem solve on the fly is critical to your success.
• Thinking outside the box is a must.

And when the work’s complete…

• The client’s expectations may not match your own.
• The client wants results and doesn’t care about your excuses.
• Presentation counts, but flavor (substance) also matters.

Seeing Cutthroat Kitchen in the context of design explains why I find the show so enjoyable. And I burn less toast now.

-Krishna