Ferran Adria

Molecular Gastronomy Gets New Pricey Cookbook

Molecular gastronomy has its new bible, a six-volume, 2,400-word tome titled The Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. The book is a how-to guide by The Cooking Lab's team Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet and will be published December 2010. The book takes chefs through fundamentals and beyond. The text and photographs include not just recipes but in depth discussions of the microbiology and physics necessary to create avant-garde fare. The impressive collection of food scholarship has already earned praise from some of the world's experts in this type of cuisine including Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck, Wylie Dufresne of wd-50 and Ferran Adria of el Bulli. It sells for $625 (but available for $421.87 on Amazon).

Why spend this much for a book? Eater recently published a spirited defense of the price, citing the fact that the equipment and expertise to develop this food is already in the upper echelons. For the food obsessed who are willing to spend hundreds for just one meal at a top restaurant, price should be no object.

Tags: ferran adria, modernist cuisine, molecular gastronomy

Ferran Adria, Harvard Professor

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

The man who many considered the world's best chef has a new gig, Harvard professor. Adria, who announced in January that his El Bulli restaurant in Spain would be closing in 2012, will teach at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences this fall. He will be working with Harvard University on an undergraduate course in culinary physics. The course will use food to explain principles of soft matter physics in which culinary creations like suspensions and gels play a role. Adria is famous for his work in molecular gastronomy, framing food in new ways and new consistencies. The course will also include guest lectures from Wylie Dufresne, chef-owner of New York's wd-50, José Andrés and Dan Barber, co-owner of several restaurants in New York specializing in farm-to-table dining.

Tags: cooking, ferran adria, harvard, Jose Andres, molecular gastronomy, wylie dufresne

World's Best Restaurant El Bulli To Close In 2012

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

2012 may not be the end of the world but it might just feel that way to some foodies. Ferran Adrià, considered to be the world's top chefs will be closing his restaurant, El Bulli in Roses, Spain for two years starting in 2012. The chef says that his schedule of 15 hours days is wearing him out and he needs time with his family. He made the announcement to a shocked crowd at Madrid Fusion, an international culinary conference. He said that while no meals would be served at El Bulli for the two years he would still be working on other things and continuing his ongoing mission to innovate the world of food. He plans to return to serving food at 2014 but made no promises to reopen El Bulli in the same format it exists in now.

When the three Michelin star restaurant closes it will leave a big gap at the top. The restaurant and its chef are famous for transforming the world of food. His unique version of molecular gastronomy has changed the culinary landscape. Who will claim the title of world's best chef? There are a few contenders around the globe including Heston Blumethal, Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz.

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Tags: el bulli, ElBulli, ferran adria, FerranAdria, worlds best chef, WorldsBestChef

Can the World's Best Chef Save Spanish Tourism?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Chef Ferrán Adrià, the innovative visionary behind the strange and wondrous cuisine of El Bulli, a restaurant widely reputed to offer one of the most amazing dining experiences in the world, has a new job. The chef has been charged with helping draw tourists to Spain. Tourism is a big part of Spain's economy but like other destinations it has seen visitor numbers decline. So the tourism industry is calling out the big guns. Adria will team up with the Esade Business School in Barcelona and La Caixa, the savings bank, to head the Tourism Management and Gastronomy School. Adrià will give classes one week each year teaching innovation and creativity to hospitality business owners. The London TImes reports that Adrià has met José Luis Rodríguez, the Spanish Prime Minister, to ask for €14 million to back the project which should begin next year.

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Tags: el bulli, ElBulli, ferran adria, FerranAdria, spanish tourism, SpanishTourism

Ferran Adria's New Beer

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Spirits, Wine

First we heard Ferran Adria, the famous Spanish chef from the world's greatest restaurant, El Bulli, was interested in pizza and it turns out he's already got the beer. Adria, his partner Juli Soler and two of his sommeliers have worked on a beer for the 100-year-old brewery Estrella Damm of Barcelona. This is no ordinary pint, The NY Times quotes Adria who says that, "The idea was to make a beer to drink with food, from a wineglass."

Inedit is actually a combination of two beers, a lager and a German-style weissbier with flavors of coriander, orange peel and licorice. The two beers are fermented separately and then combined in a 750ml wine bottle where they undergo a secondary fermentation. It is recommended that the beer be chilled in a wine cooler and served in white wine glasses which are supposed to be filled only half full so that the nuances of the brew can be appreciated. It sells for $9.99 and is available at Whole Foods.

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Tags: beer, champagne, ferran adria, FerranAdria, inedit, lager

World's Best Chef To Open A Pizza Place

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

What does the chef at the world's best restaurant do for an encore? How about opening a pizza joint? The LA Times reports that El Bulli chef, Ferran Adria has been in Italy studying pizza making. it's quite a change in direction for a man famous for his devotion to molecular gastronomy. But Adira has promised that his planned pizza restaurant in Barcelona, Spain will be a straightforward affair, no foams, no liquid nitrogen or strange balls of flavor, just your basic pizza pie.

Some Italian chefs are skeptical about the pizza skills of Ferran Adria and his pastry chef brother Alberto feeling that pizzamaking is more of a calling than something you can just quickly pick up. But for the Adrias the new planned venture offers a chance to cook for far more people than the small amount who eat at El Bulli each year. Let's just hope we don't see Adria frozen pizzas in the market in a few years right next to the Wolfgang Puck boxes.

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Tags: el bulli, ElBulli, ferran adria, FerranAdria, fine dining, FineDining, pizza

El Bulli Is The Top Restaurant Yet Again

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Once again the molecular gastronomy stylings of chef Ferran Adria have pushed Spanish restaurant El Bulli to the top of another world's best restaurants list. El Bulli won the top slot in the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants 2009. The list is the result of a poll of more than 800 chefs, critics managers and others done for Restaurant Magazine.

According to the AFP, Adria is quoted as saying it was an important night for Spain (in addition to El Bulli, two other Spanish restaurants, Mugaritz and El Celler de Can Roca were in the top five). He dedicated his award to Heston Blumenthal, whose restaurant, The Fat Duck was in the second position. Adria praised Blumenthal for his honesty. Blumenthal closed his restaurant briefly over a potential food poisoning scare earlier this year. Restaurants in the top ten from the U.S. were Thomas Keller's Per Se and Grant Achtaz's Alinea in the US.

Off the list this year was Gordon Ramsay's flagship London restaurant. Bloomberg reports that it was in 13th place last year but didn't even crack the top 100 for 2009. He did squeak onto the list in slot 91 with his restaurant Maze.

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Tags: el bulli, ElBulli, ferran adria, FerranAdria, fine dining, FineDining, heston blumenthal, HestonBlumenthal, restaurants

Faces by Ferran Adria

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Faces is the collection of kitchen tools and tableware designed for the most famous molecular gastronomist, the man who heads up the best restaurant in the world, Ferran Adria. The basic cutlery (pictured) is elegant, with tattooed handles and sinuous curves. The shell-like Egg bowl collection is used both for serving and for work in the kitchen, depending on size, while the rest of the serving pieces, primarily made of stainless steel, glass and even leather, are unlike anything you'll find anywhere else. For the truly dedicated home chef, you can even pick up some of the unique spoons, skewers and tongs that all serve as eating implements at el Bulli itself. Prices run from $48 to $392 for various pieces of the collection.