l i f e

Anu Gulmohar takes you into the world of new age cooking and
brings you an exclusive interview with the man shaping a new
language in gastronomy – Ferran Adrià

the sunday indian 72 6 july 2008

Life inside
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Enter the
home of
culinary
innovation
Anu Gulmohar takes you
into the world of new age
cooking and brings you an
exclusive interview with
the man shaping a new
language in gastronomy –
Ferran Adrià

the sunday indian 73 6 july 2008

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Cappuccino of mint-flavoured
baby broad beans
H
aute cuisine has
always been the
prerogative of
French chefs,
but there’s a man in their
neighbouring country who
has been leading a revolu-
tion from his kitchen. Fer-
ran Adrià's been on the cov-
er of the Time magazine,
which listed him among the
most influential men of our
times; he’s been on the cover
of The New York Times mag-
azine too; and acknowledg-
ing his work, France’s Le
Monde Sunday edition too
featured him on their cover.
Every year about 600 of the
most respected chefs, res-
taurateurs, critics and gour-
mands decide on the 50 best
restaurants in the world, and
elBulli, the three-Michelin-
starred restaurant run by
Ferran Adrià, has come out
on the top of the heap in
2002, 2006, 2007 and in
2008 too. People with the
evolutionary advantage of
being able to look food-
wards for more reasons than
bare- bones survival, have
been developing an appetite,
or would you rather, a pal-
ate, for new, exotic cuisines,
both in India and abroad,
and I personally, unasham-
edly, adhere to the trend.
Thinking about Ferran
Adrià and his ‘development
squad’ working 15 hours a
day, creating new dishes to
savour, deserts to ravish and
sensations to cherish is tre-
mendously exciting for
the sunday indian 74 6 july 2008
ferran adrià
and his ‘de-
velopment
squad’ work
15 hours a
day, creating
new dishes
foodies like me. Ferran’s un-
conventional creations, like
sour ice creams (!), mozza-
rella and caviar pizzas, and
foams, shocked the world
and attracted much scepti-
cism at first. Slowly, shock
turned to awe and this Span-
iard began to be compared
with Picasso, who once lived
in a village not too far from
elBulli. If Picasso invented
cubism and gave a whole
new direction to art, Adrià
is inventing a delectable new
language in cooking.
Considering Ferran Adrià
is the presiding god of haute
cuisine, the journey up to
his 'temple' is no less than a
pilgrimage. It is a long, long
journey to elBulli. Getting to
Roses, at the outskirts of
which is this restaurant, was
not easy as pie either. As I
covered the last leg of my
journey sitting in a cab, I
found myself drawing fur-
ther and further away from
the bustling world, as if psy-
chologically, I was being
prepared to let go of my no-
tions and beliefs, and open
myself to a whole new
world. elBulli has not a whiff
of the sophisticated jazz that
I’d half expected to find at
the 'world’s best restaurant';
instead, a warm, welcoming
restaurant, overlooking the
Cala Monjoi bay greeted me.
“The possibility of finding
new paths, new roads, new
things, is very important.
There are jobs that you can’t
go further with, whereas in
cooking, you can keep dis-
covering new ways,” said the
46-year-old master chef to
me. But the road isn’t always
easy, and is almost always
strewn with sceptics and
competition trying to bring
you down. Still Ferran
doesn’t consider a dose of
courage vital for those mov-
ing on from reinventing rec-
ipes to creating their own
marvels. “It is not a question
of being courageous, but a
question of whether you’re
free; for if you’re free then
only you can be creative,”
said Ferran. 1987 was the
year when he discovered his
 world's best chef

freedom, when he found

himself solely in charge of french chef jacques maximin’s words,
the kitchen at elBulli. This “creativity means not copying,” spurred
him to leave cook books aside
was also the year when
French chef Jacques Max-
imin’s words, “Creativity
means not copying,” spurred 'Molecular Gastronomy'. year’s menu. This is also it, but not new things.” And
him and his team to leave Adrià’s school of cooking when they travel and try out then he tells me something
cook books aside and create came up with another new restaurants in different parts that should be of interest to
their own culinary identity. concept – Deconstruction of the world, looking for in- a majority of Indians, “If
“There was a whole cycle (!!). What this implied was spiration and perhaps for vegetarians come here, I
that was a lot of fun; from that they would deconstruct more dishes to deconstruct! prepare a vegetarian menu
1994 on... It was a turning a dish and analyse its indi- “The best restaurants in the with 30 dishes in total.” Peo-
point in cooking, because vidual components. Then, world are in Spain,” believes ple who consider visiting el-
this period set the path to a by using science, reconstruct the Spaniard, “But I am also Bulli the next time they
new language.” This was the it in such a manner that on in love with Japanese food. travel to Spain, should keep
time when Ferran and his tasting it, a person would There are some wonderful in mind that this restaurant
team began to truly under- recognise the original prop- restaurants in Tokyo,” Fer- receives about 8,00,000 re-
stand the nature of the prod- erties, and would be delight- ran reveals. I wonder aloud quests for a table each sea-
ucts they used and began ed with its new form. So if that is the reason why son, and are able to accom-
laying the foundation for when they deconstructed most of his creations revolve modate just 8,000 diners!
entirely new techniques and the classic Indian chicken around sea food and veg- Lately, a controversy
concepts. They didn’t permit curry, they came up with gies, instead of the European sparked off when another
long-standing dogmas to curry ice cream! staple of red meat. “No,” re- top Spanish chef, Santi San-
limit their creativity, and fig- elBulli is closed in the plied Ferran, “that’s just be- tamaria declared that Adrià’s
ured that vegetables tradi- winters for six months, and cause I seem to be incapable style of cooking had harm-
tionally used in savoury they dedicate this period of creating anything new ful side effects. Attached to
dishes, like tomatoes, peas every year to whip up whol- with red meat! I could do the traditional style of cook-
and beetroots would be per- ly new dishes for the next plenty of good things with ing, Santamaria’s accusations
fect for sweeter dishes, while
fruits like raspberries and
passion fruits, due to their
acidic properties, would be
just right for savoury dishes!
They introduced items like
pop-corns, oreo cookies, lol-
lipops in haute cuisine and
toyed with whether air
could be considered a prod-
uct! This speculation led to
their invention of foams –
an airy essence of literally
any edible product, from al-
monds and coriander to co-
conuts, white beans and po-
tatoes – by using siphons
and liquid nitrogen. The
concept of creating these
foams has today been adopt-
ed by hundreds of chefs
worldwide. Thus, the aroma
from Adrià’s kitchen spread
afar as more and more peo-
ple recognised him as a pio-
neer of ahem...

the sunday indian 75 6 july 2008

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1. Textured vegetable panaché
2. Peach sandwich with apple, courgette
and celeriac 3. Mackerel with smoked
romesco and goat cheese
4. Smoked shoulder of Iberian pork stew
of Adrià potentially poison-
ing his customers led to de-
tailed and heated discus-
sions between the pro- and
anti-Adrià camps. A few
days ago, Ferran appeared
on Spanish state television
and said, “It has been made
clear that these products are
totally healthy and they have
been used for 50 years.” And
giving an example of exactly
how they use the chemicals,
Ferran said, “the best choco-
late in the world contains
lecithin, which makes it
more fluid... and what we've
done is take this to serve in
another dish”. Sitting by me
at the table at elBulli, a few
weeks before this storm
brew-up, Ferran had said, “I
have been accepting critics
for the past 30 years. But the
more one finds out about
our food, the more their
perception changes. Some
people find me to be eccen-
tric because they don’t know
me. But I am a very average
4
man. To create, I have to do
something different, and at
times it can be shocking.”
Back home, anchor of the
show Rasm-e-Rasoi, chef
Nikhil Rastogi of The Park
speaks highly of Ferran and
his team. “They do a lot of
R&D. They've done so much
for the culinary world. I
think that nobody else has
been able to achieve even
half of what they have... like
grilled watermelons, some-
thing nobody can even
think of doing!”
“Experimentation is really
important,” he continued,
“as we really get bored with
the same cuisine, the same
masalas and the same tadkas
day in and day out. We need
to find new things.” Chef
Anurag Bali, Executive Sous
Chef, The Claridges, New
Delhi too had only praises
to sing for the guru of avant-
garde cuisine. “Ferran Adrià
has played a key role in giv-
ing food a whole new di-
the sunday indian 76 6 july 2008
3 2
exotica like
hot ice-creams
and egg yolks
encased in
caramel will
still be coming
out of elBulli's
kitchens
mension; experimenting
with ingredients to produce
new and exciting flavours.
He has greatly inspired chefs
from the world over to look
at creativity from a different
perspective, and has given
the culinary world a new ec-
lectic cuisine.” People living
in Delhi can get a taste of
Ferran’s innovative dishes at
The Claridges’ Spanish res-
taurant, Sevilla. “We serve
tomato vanilla foam, and a
coconut cloud with a chilled
tropical gazpacho,” said Bali.
In another 20 minutes el-
Bulli was to open for the
evening. Reaching the end
of my rendezvous with Fer-
ran, I asked him when his
work would be complete.
“Well, never,” Ferran had re-
plied. “We work in a team.
It’s the whole team that’s
working here, not just me. I
really don’t know if it will
ever be completed.” I guess
culinary exotica like hot ice-
creams, frothy truffle cap-
puccinos, toasted popcorns
with chocolate covering, egg
yolks encased in caramel,
lollipops created out of veg-
etables and other such in-
genious delicacies will be
coming out of the kitchens
of elBulli for a long, long
time to come. 
With inputs from Aakriti
Bhardwaj