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In a Barcelona laboratory known as El Taller, Ferran Adria isolates himself while conducting experiments, turning solid matter into liquids, gasses and foams. As the food cogniscenti already know, Adria isn’t a scientist by profession, though he knows more about atoms and molecules then any civilian probably should. He is the executive chef and owner of El Bulli, a restaurant that holds three Michelin stars and sits atop the European Restaurant Ranking.
Perhaps unfairly, Adria is credited as the founder of a new wave of cooking called molecular gastronomy. MG was coined by the French scientist Hervé This and Austrian physicist Nicolas Kurti in 1969. The MG theory applies science to cooking while trying to create new food textures and sensations that a conventionally equipped kitchen would never be able to produce. This food is deconstructed, transubstantiated, stretched, prodded and reinvented. It is regarded today as what New-American cuisine was twenty years ago: hip and modern.
Adria says his goal is to “provide unexpected contrasts of flavor, temperature and texture. Nothing is what it seems. The idea is to provoke surprise and delight the diner.” Various dishes combine a sense of humor and irony, as if he were saying, ‘I know this is a 30-course tasting menu, but let’s not take ourselves too seriously. One such dish is Adria’s “esterification olive” – olive oil wrapped in a thin filament so that it looks like an olive, yet when you bite into a burst of unctuous liquid gold coats your palate. Yet for many, a meal at El Bulli is life-changing and bank breaking. Adria contends that “the ideal customer doesn’t come to El Bulli to eat but to have an experience.”
Some of Adria’s ideal customers include top chefs from across the world who regularly make the trip to the small town outside of San Sebastian in Northern Spain to experience El Bulli. Many of the new wave of molecular gastronomists fight to get an internship with Adria to gain experience and inspiration. The most well-known of the lot include Pierre Gagnaire at 6 rue Balzac in Paris, Hesten Blumenthal at the Fat Duck in England and Wylie Dufresne at WD-50 on the Lower East Side.
