Imagine a Restaurant With 30-Courses and a Waiting List of One Year
by Larry Cox on Feb. 20, 2012, under UncategorizedFerran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food by Colman Andrews (Gotham Books, $16)
Imagine a restaurant with a 30-course menu and a waiting list of more than a year.
El Bulli, located in the Catalan coastal hamlet of Cala Montjoi, near Spain’s border with France, is just such a restaurant and considered by many to be the ultimate dining experience on the planet.
Ferran Adria, hailed as a genius and a prophet by fellow chefs, is the man behind the restaurant. Colman Andrews, co-founder of Saveur and its editor-in-chief from 2002 to 2006, was given two years of unrestricted access to Adria and the El Bulli’s kitchen. The result is a defining and revealing portrait of the man who has been called the greatest chef in the world.
What made Adria such an important culinary figure is the fact that he is eager to find and test new techniques and products and freely shares his knowledge with fellow chefs and students.
This highly readable book is being published just as the world famous restaurant will close for two years so that Adria and his staff can develop new ideas and techniques as they help define a new vision in food. The restaurant that will reopen in 2014 will, Adria claims, feature a different culinary mission and vision.
This little book is a gem and a fitting portrait of a man who has permanently changed the culinary landscape, influencing not only other purveyors of haute cuisine but chefs, food producers, and people who eat every day on every level, in almost every corner of the world.
