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Behind the scenes with Chef Alex Atala of D.O.M. in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Gualtiero Marchesi gave a talk entitled The Marchesi Code, which coincidentally is the title of his newest book (unfortunately apparently not carried by Amazon.com). Marchesi of Ristorante Gualtiero Marchesi in Erbusco, Italy and several other restaurants discussed his culinary philosophy while members of his kitchen staff prepared several dishes. Marchesi outlined his "Total Cuisine as a product of his experience in the culinary world and focuses on the concepts and values of "harmony, beauty civilization, color, genius, taste, invention, lightness, myth, territory, tradition, truth and simplicity." The recipes prepared during the demonstration are given in his book and each illustrates a particular concept, non-traditional takes on traditional dishes. Marchesi spoke of his philosophy and his cuisine, which incorporates a minimalist aesthetic. He touched on creativity in cooking and what it means to be creative. This touches the heart of a recent and current discussion topic in the Italy Forum. From the book: "Pyramid of Venere Rice" in the foreground representing "Civilization", revives the pyramid as representative of the civilization of ancient Egypt. The venere rice itself, comes from China. It is cooked in the fashion of a risotto exclusive of the addition of butter or oil. The dish, garnished with lobster and squid, has a sauce that contains ingredients more commonly associated with Asian cooking including ginger and soy sauce. From the book, "Rice, Gold and Saffron" an interpretation of Risotto Milanese, represents "Beauty" for Marchesi, which is "essential, without frills." Reminiscent of the painting of Jackson Pollock, "Dripping di Pesce" or "Fish garnished using the Dripping Technique", is an illustration of the importance of color to Marchesi. It basically consist of mayonnaise some kept yellow and the rest colored black with cuttlefish ink and green with pesto and tomato puree with various seafood arranged amongst the yellow base with red, black and green sauces dripped over it. "Open Ravioli" is Marchesi's interpretation of "Myth. Following the words of Thomas Mann, "the typical is also mythical", Marchesi feels that a restaurant becomes "typical if and when (it is) capable of giving rise to a myth, that is to say, of communicating a clear and distinct sensation recognizable and recognized by many if not by all." "Truth" is represented to Marchesi by the essential truth of the white on black of "Cuttlefish in its ink." According to Marchesi, "There is nothing left to be said."

I think that there will always be a place for it, albeit limited. In this respect I don't think the culinary arts are unlike other arts. Not every element has to appeal to everyone so long as it is able to find its own audience. In the end every artist, no matter the medium, has to eat and have shelter. As such, every artist needs to be able to find an audience willing to pay enough for that artist to get by and continue making that art. If there is not a sufficient audience then that artist either starves, moves on to something else or changes the art until an audience is found. i think the better an artist, any artist, is at getting his or her point across, the more likely that artist will continue to generate sufficient support to keep doing what he is doing. So long as people continue to think and be creative, we will continue to see intensive intellectualization of food, probably in ways most of us could never imagine.

Returning to Andoni Luis Aduriz and his dish "Vanity" for a moment. He gave a good explanation of the concept of the dish at the Congress, but wanting to make sure that i did his explanation justice, I contacted him and asked him to explain it to me again. His answer is in Spanish followed by my translation. If anyone more fluent in Spanish notices any mistakes in my translation please do not hesitate to offer an alternate version or to correct me where I may be wrong. Vanity

Thanks for the positive feedback, Tangelo and others. I have returned from a little business jaunt to San Francisco and will be (hopefully) finishing this report soon. Of course, I will also have some things to report from San Francisco, but that will be in other topics.

To me the best place for solo dining and one of the best places for any dining is the counter at Canteen.

I have to say, Trucie, those photos really had me drooling - very nice work. Very nice report notwithstanding the cultural meat preferences discussed.

Thanks, Ted. I hope to be able to get back to providing more content to the report by the end of the week.

The event is certainly not just for cooks. Pastry has a very strong presence as well, but please don't kill unless it is something nonhuman to prepare for eating.

Alas, memory rarely serves me well anymore The dish Will built contained quite a few ingredients, each of which though not entirely of the color contained at least some red. I suspect that he layered the dish as he felt at the time choosing from the ingredients on the palette beside him. Unfortunately, I did not get to taste it, so I cannot comment about new flavor combinations within. I suspect that the flavor was somewhat unique and familiar at the same time. Correct me if I am misreading your question, but I believe that the question is one of gender balance. Certainly the preponderance of presenters were male, though not exclusively with people such as Carmen Titita Ramirez Degollado, Elizabeth Falkner and the yet to be posted Elena Arzak off the top of my head. There were quite a few women in the audience, though again the majority was clearly male. Is it changing? I think it is, however slowly, per my observation, though that is far from a scientific study.

I had an extremely well-crafted and delicious meal last night downstairs at Chez Panisse. i finally made it there. I did have some trepidation as I had heard mixed things about the restaurant. I love the cafe, but was afraid the restaurant might not measure up. The food certainly did, but the overall experience was mixed. For a relatively straightforward (by restaurant standards) 4 course meal, the wait in between courses was excruciatingly slow. We were with great company, but even so it was quite late for us. The best I could do was get an 8:45PM reservation, but as were still basically on eastern time, that was really 11;45PM for us.We weren't actually seated until around 9:15 or so. Our waiter was very pleasant and friendly, but not particularly well-informed about the food. There are no pictures as I forgot my camera We had an all-seafood based meal that started with a kir royale made with their own raspberry syrup and cava. The first course bright and vibrant tuna tartare with sweet and hot peppers set on some toast and accompanied by basil and watercress. When I saw the menu on-line this week prior to the dinner, I thought I wouldn,t be too thrilled with the next course, but I was very wrong as it actually turned out to be wonderful and my favorite of the evening. I have always preferred oysters raw and have never really had an obviously cooked oyster that I have preferred to the totally natural, but the Fried Drake's Bay oysters with wilted spinach and a tarragon cream were a revelation. Still moist inside with a lightly fried outer coat, the combination with the wilted spinach and tarragon cream, as simple as it was, truly awakened me to the true potential of the cooked oyster. We had a bottle of 2005 Odysseus "G" garnacha blanca from Viñedos de Ithaca, Priorat, Spain. My wife and I were at this vineyard around the time these grapes were harvested so we jumped at the opportunity to try this wine. It did not disappoint as its minerality held up well to the various seafood courses. The main course, cassoulet de mer with fresh flageolet beans, smoked black cod, grilled squid, mussels and shellfish sausage was simply delicious as fresh shellfish must be unless ruined by incompetent cooking. The cooking here was much more than competent and each component with the exception of the cod was individually identifiable in its contribution to the whole. The cod, while it almost certainly offered a contribution to the flavor of the dish was under the radar despite its having been smoked. Our table split the tissane and wild mint teas with our dessert, which was candied meyer lemon ice cream and a crepe with wild huckleberries. The ice cream was flavorful, but dense. Overall the dish worked satisfactorily, though it was the least engaging dish of the evening for me. I was surprised to already see meyer lemons available at Ferry Plaza market earlier in the day. The room was comfortable though available light was wanting for non-flash photography, especially without my main camera. The only real downer of the evening was the protracted waits - to be seated and in between courses, especially between the main course and dessert. i could not distinguish any real differences in the quality or style of the food between the restaurant and the cafe. The only real differences are the set menu downstairs with different dishes than are available upstairs and a bit more formality downstairs. What they do in the kitchen they do very well and are justified in their reputation. They take wonderful ingredients and prepare them simply, but very well, letting the quality of those ingredients shine. Despite the negatives, I remain a fan.

Jose Iturriaga was also a winner of the Slow Food Award for the Defense of Biodiversity a few years ago. Great to see you today, Rancho!

Dani Garcia preps in the backstage kitchen

Will Goldfarb talked about and demonstrated what he considers Experiential Cuisine. This was illustrated by activities Goldfarb participates with online within Second Life. For Goldfarb, food is for more than just eating. It is for experiencing. This is facilitated by an interplay between the chef and a base ingredient. The chef utilizes specific technique to effect and alter the ingredient, which is then received and experienced by the guest. For his demonstration, Goldfarb meticulously built a complex, multi-ingredient dish based on the color red. In this dish he highlighted the outstanding quality and variety of produce from The Chefs Garden Red

Finishing touches for Aduriz' presentation: Gualtiero Marchesi and Andoni Luis Aduriz backstage Old friends Aduriz and Oriol Balaguer shortly before Balaguer had to leave for the airport

Thanks, Eliot. I hope to post one more session for the time being, then I will be off to generate some new content for other forums. I will get back to this report as soon as I can.

The current (October 2007) issue of Food Arts contains an interesting profile of Andoni Luis Aduriz as well as a recipe for "Ripe garden Fruit & Beet Fizz." Using powdered egg whites and Xanthan gum as stabilizers, Aduriz creates his bubbles or "fizz" with a blender.

Brenda Shick of the Chefs Garden arranging red botanicals for Will Goldfarb's presentation. Farmer Lee Jones of the Chefs Garden and Will Goldfarb waiting for his presentation.

Cocoa Bubbles, Edible Rocks and Vegetables. Andoni Luis Aduriz, the thoughtful and celebrated chef of Mugaritz outside San Sebastien demonstrated some of the techniques he has developed and uses in his intensely personal "Techno-Emotional" cuisine. From the Starchefs Program notes on Chef Aduriz: Chef Marchesi and his assistant look on from the wings. Chef Aduriz started his demo talking about and showing his apparatus for making "bubbles". It is interesting to note the evolution of this technique since last November when he presented it at the CIA's World of Flavors Conference on Spain and the World Table at Greystone. While he also used a fishtank aerator then, his presentation apparatus as can be seen in the photo above has become much more elaborate and improved for generating the airfilled, xanthan gum stabilized films. The bubbles in the receptacle are from beet juice. I tasted them backstage. The flavor was actually quite substantial for such an insubstantial material. Plating the beet juice bubbles. Chocolate cakes for "Vanity:. a dish he was working on back in November. Plating "Vanity" "Vanity - the bubbles burst with a puff of smoke. Chef Aduriz also demonstrated his signature "Potato Rocks" ...and showed a video on his Michel Bras inspired botanical salad made with over 80 ingredients.

Chefs Aduriz and Gualtiero Marchesi exchange greetings prior to their demos.

Starchefs ICC Day Three: September18, 2007 Dani Lasa, Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz' assistant from Mugaritz prepping part of the dish called "Vanity" prior to their demo.

Wow, kalypso, great report so far. Between this and Caroline's foodblog, memories are pouring back. Diana Kennedy is certainly a legend. I am quite jealous.

The cool thing for me is that it was just all a lot of fun. This isn't my job nor do I make any money from it. I love it because it helps give me some insights into the food I love to eat and the people creating it. Putting the report together on top of my other non eGullet Society responsibilities is a lot of work, but if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it. I'm glad that others are enjoying it and hopefully getting something out of it. Unfortunately, because I am not a chef and I spend a lot of time behind the camera, I can't really answer many of the technical cooking questions too well.

You 're welcome. It is a lot of fun with a lot of great culinary information set in a great location at a very reasonable cost. This year was larger than last to the point that they are thinking of limiting the number of people who can attend to keep it from getting too big. I'm not a chef (obviously ), but I haven't heard of any not thinking it was a great experience.

Dave Wondrich making "Tombstones" with Woodford Reserve Bourbon. Two views of Ken Oringer's marvelous Oyster shooters - how did he do it? Junior Merino used Amerula Cream Liquer and Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum in his cocktail. Andoni Aduriz with Asbel Reyes and Seiji Yamamoto. Aduriz and Yamamoto have collaborated on dishes. Subsequent to the Cocktail party I went to wd-50 for dinner and Tailor for an after-party, but I put the camera away.