Getting inside the head of anyone is difficult. But if that someone happens to be a chef, well it's almost impossible. Imagine the thought process involved in having been the first person to devise the technique for braising a lamb shank. Or the person who first put the chocolate and mint flavor combination together. While both are ingenious, the question becomes whether they were accidents or products of divine intervention? Or maybe it was something else?

It is the job of an executive chef to conceptualize a menu. That means they must not only decide what to serve but how to serve it. If you are a chef in Barcelona working in a restaurant specializing in seafood, chances are your surrounding environment stimulates you. But what if you are a chef in New York working in a Spanish restaurant? Where does your inspiration come from?

"Travel, without question, is my most powerful inspiration", said Alexandra Raij, chef of Tia Pol and El Quinto Pino, both in New York City. "Nothing can replace the synergy of having an ingredient or a dish in its original context or discussing food culture with a local at a tapas bar." Travel, however, is a luxury most chefs cannot afford – both for its cost and for its time commitment.

As a result, many chefs turn to alternative methods in order to gain inspiration for their menus. Books, culinary conferences, food festivals, cultural marketing boards, even purveyors can inspire a chef with the introduction of a new ingredient.

For the past few years, the Kingdom of Navarra has organized "Semana Navarra" – a campaign to promote the cultural and gastronomic products of its region. In New York, organizers asked chefs of Spanish restaurants to create menus highlighting Navarra's typical dishes and rich culinary landscape. Both Raij and Alex Ureña, executive chef of Pamplona in New York, participated in the event this year. Ureña is happy to participate as it provides him a chance to further explore the cuisine he has dedicated himself to serving at his restaurant.

"Our food is founded on the culinary principals of the Basque, Navarra, and Castilla regions of Spain – so this program is a great fit." But Navarra is not the only region of Spain promoting itself through a special restaurant week. The region of Andalucía promotes one as well. "[These campaigns] are useful to the entire cooking community to help bring attention to an array of products that often are of very fine quality and many people and cooks, even non– Spanish, would be lucky to have in their repertoires" said Raij.

Some chefs, however, create their own events. Seattle chef Greg Higgins showcases extra virgin olive oils during a "New Crop Olive Oil Festival" that he holds at his restaurant, Higgins Restaurant and Bar, during the month of January. He has chosen Soler Romero's "Cortijo el Tobazo" oil from Andalucía to include in his special tasting menu, which is designed to showcase the freshly pressed complexity and character of the oil.

While these events are effective in creating awareness, the question becomes if they are useful in creating increased business for the restaurant. "Our regular customers enjoy the new menus and seeing what we can come up with. And sure…it does help bring in business – people are curious," offered Ureña.

Aarón Sánchez, chef and owner of Paladar and Centrico, both in New York, has created special menus for wine makers. Sánchez agrees with Ureña: "Our regular clients are the ones that tend to order the special menus because they want to see what new things we have come up with. But I find that these special menus are good opportunities to educate our staff in new ingredients, regions, and wine pairings."

When asked about the effect of these special menus on her restaurant, Raij adds, "These events are an opportunity for us personally to reacquaint our staff with the origin of certain ingredients and dishes that are already on our menu or already in rotation in our specials. [The staff's] ability to tell a story and make connections is something we count on daily." She adds that she is happy to participate "in anything that will promote the availability of fine Spanish products in the US. These events help producers find audiences and distributorship."

At times, a single ingredient is all that is needed to spawn inspiration. "We have held single ingredient dinners – say lobster or corn – and asked a chef to create a full menu using that ingredient as the main component of each dish," said Shelley Menaged of The James Beard Foundation, a New York based non–profit organization dedicated to promoting the culinary arts through educational programs and other initiatives.

These iron chef style dinners held at the historic James Beard House in New York are surprisingly well attended. "I suppose guests are curious with how much can be done with just one ingredient," offered Menaged.

Sometimes one ingredient is all it takes. It is not uncommon for a chef to obsess over an ingredient and create dishes – even menus – based on it. While the latter is more difficult to stumble upon, ingredient obsession has lead to some great dishes, such as the Uni Panini served at El Quinto Pino. It was after reading a book on Austrian [should this be Asturian?] cooking that Raij was inspired by an entire chapter dedicated to erizos (sea urchins). "The result was a crispy little sea urchin sandwich, which despite being unlike anything I have ever eaten in Spain, is still so right in a tapas bar because it packs so much flavor in it's tiny little package. It is Asturian in spirit even though the inspiration is not so obvious." And yet it has been one of their most well received tapas.

But at the end of the day, travel seems to be the biggest source of inspiration for everyone. To this day, Ureña credits the traveling he did throughout Spain at the conclusion of the time he spent working in the kitchen of Bouley – several years ago – with the insight and inspiration he gets when creating his current menus.

He even offers his customers an opportunity to travel through the various gastronomic regions of Spain through a series of popular menus he creates based on a single region such as an Asturian bean-based menu or a Castillian meat-based one. While he refers to books to help spawn his menu, he ultimately relies on his gastronomic travel memories to give him the edge.

A sentiment Raij agrees with. She also wonders why more resources are not dedicated to helping chefs travel. "I think it would be a tremendous investment for food producers and regional trade organizations to partner more frequently to sponsor visits for cooks."

Sánchez took such a trip and encourages others to do the same. "There is no substitute for travel and seeing first hand how products are made and then tasting them yourself." One can say it's a chef's way of getting a peek into the mind of a far–away colleague.

Lourdes Castro is a New York based food writer and consultant. She is currently working on a Mexican cookbook as well as a Spanish–English dictionary of culinary terms to be published by Ten Speed Press next year.