Ferran Adrià i Acosta is a Spanish Catalan chef born on May 14, 1962 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. He is the famed head chef of the El Bulli restaurant in Roses on the Costa Brava. Today he is considered one of the best chefs in the world and tops the European Restaurant Ranking.
Career
A liquid olive, one of Adrià's appetizers
Ferran Adrià began his culinary career in 1980 during his stint as a dishwasher at the Hotel Playafels, in the town of Castelldefels. The chef de cuisine at this hotel taught him traditional Spanish cuisine. At 19 he was drafted into military service where he worked as a cook. In 1984, at the age of 22, Adrià joined the kitchen staff of El Bulli as a line cook. Eighteen months later he became the head chef.
Along with British chef Heston Blumenthal, Adrià is often associated with "molecular gastronomy," although the Catalan chef does not consider his cuisine to be of this category. Instead, he has referred to his cooking as deconstructivist. Adrià's stated goal is to "provide unexpected contrasts of flavour, temperature and texture. Nothing is what it seems. The idea is to provoke, surprise and delight the diner."1 This is also combined with a large dose of irony and a sense of humour, making his dishes highly épatants (impressive). As he likes to say, "the ideal customer doesn't come to El Bulli to eat but to have an experience."
El Bulli is only open for about six months of the year (in 2010,the season is due to run from June 15 to December 20).2 Adrià spends the remaining six months of the year perfecting recipes in his workshop "El Taller" in Barcelona. He is famous for his thirty course gourmet menu.
He is also well known for creating "culinary foam". In his quest to enhance flavour Adrià discards the use of cream and egg; foam is made exclusively of the main ingredient and "air" (combined in a siphon bottle equipped with N2O cartridges). Adrià's foam creations include foamed espresso (Èspesso), foamed mushroom, and foamed beetroot, as well as foamed meats.
El Bulli has 3 Michelin stars and is regarded as one of the best restaurants in the world. In 2005 it ranked second in the Restaurant Top 50. It was awarded the first place in 2006, displacing The Fat Duck in England. El Bulli has retained this title in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Adrià is the author of several cookbooks including A Day at El Bulli3, El Bulli 2003-2004 and Cocinar en Casa (Cooking at Home). With his young assistant Daniel Picard, Adrià has made almonds into cheese and asparagus into bread with the help of natural ingredients.4
Adrià has been a featured chef on Great Chefs television.5
Controversy
Adrià denounced his fellow 3-star Michelin cook who described his "molecular gastronomy" as pretentious. Traditionalist Santi Santamaria attacked Adrià's dishes in El Bulli as unhealthy, alleging "Adrià's dishes were designed to impress rather than satisfy and used chemicals that actually put diners' health at risk". Top chefs, however, accused Santamaria, who runs the 3-star Can Fabes near El Bulli, of envy and contempt of Spanish kitchens' honour.6 The criticism has split top Spanish chefs into pro- and anti-Adrià camps.7 Unusual dishes that have been criticized include frozen whisky sour candy, white garlic and almond sorbet, tobacco-flavoured blackberry crushed ice and Kellogg’s paella (Rice Krispies, shrimp heads and vanilla-flavoured mashed potatoes).
German food writer,Jörg Zipprick, accused Adrià of more or less poisoning his customers with the additives he uses in his “molecular gastronomy” and said that Adrià’s menu should carry health warnings: “These colorants, gelling agents, emulsifiers, acidifiers and taste enhancers that Adrià has introduced massively into his dishes to obtain extraordinary textures, tastes and sensations do not have a neutral impact on health”.8
Works
- El Bulli 1983-1993 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià)
- El Bulli: el sabor del Mediterráneo, 1993, ISBN 84-7596-415-X
- Los secretos de El Bulli, 1997, ISBN 448710002
- El Bulli 1994-1997 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià)
- Cocinar en 10 minutos con Ferran Adrià, 1998, ISBN 84-605-7628-0
- Celebrar el milenio con Arzak y Adrià (with Juan Mari Arzak), 1999, ISBN 84-8307-246-7
- El Bulli 1998-2002 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià), Conran Octopus, 2003, ISBN 1-84091-346-0; Ecco, 2005, ISBN 0-06-081757-7
- El Bulli 2003-2004 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià), Ecco, 2006, ISBN 0-06-114668-4
- El Bulli 2005
- A Day At El Bulli 2008
- FOOD for thought THOUGHT for food (El Bulli y Ferran Adrià), 2009 Actar Editorial, ISBN 978-84-96954-68-7
In October 2008 Ferran Adrià published A Day At El Bulli along with Juli Soler, and Albert Adrià. The book describes 24-hours at the El Bulli restaurant, with images, commentary, photographs and 30 recipes. Most of the recipes included are complex and require many out-of-the ordinary kitchen appliances, such as a Pacojet, freeze-dryer, liquid nitrogen tank, candyfloss machine and Perspex molds.
See also
References
External links
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