Jump to content


Welcome to the eGullet Forums!

These forums are a service of the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancement of the culinary arts. Anyone can read the forums, however if you would like to participate in active discussions please join the Society.

Photo

Natural flavor


  • This topic is locked This topic is locked
1 reply to this topic

#1 vmilor

vmilor
  • participating member
  • 345 posts

Posted 14 December 2004 - 11:09 AM

In your Los Secretos you emphasize the importance of seeking the most pure flavor of natural products. Technique(and creativity)for you is not an end in itself but a means to a higher goal of purest flavor. However, many of your followers seem to focus exclusively on technical novelties you introduced regarding texture and temperature, often to the detriment of natural flavor. Do you agree with this statement? Do you think that innovation for the sake of innovation is hurting rather than helping the new Spanish cuisine? Do you think your long tasting menus adopted by your admirers make things worse in the sense that the new chefs are trying to "surprise"the diner with 15 courses, some of them mediocre, instead of perfecting a number of great dishes through patient, artisanal work?

#2 Ferran Adrià

Ferran Adrià
  • participating member
  • 44 posts

Posted 16 December 2004 - 10:06 AM

The problem with taste transcends by far the fields of cooking and cuisine. It’s a matter so subjective that it all comes down to your opinion and my opinion. When I taste something and I affirm “this tastes to asparagus”, it’s just my opinion. Someone can deny it.

Regarding textures, I can make an asparagus soup which will taste more like an asparagus than the actual product. This is my dream, and sometimes I get it. Many people have a wrong perception about what is pursued through texture changes.

Not everything is wrong with people who follow my path. There are people in Spain, doing long tasting menus amazingly. Ten years ago or so, we were almost nothing culinarily speaking. Now, everyone is looking at us. I’d say that I have to do something with that.

Edited by Ferran Adrià, 19 December 2004 - 03:18 PM.

Ferran Adrià
elBulli