The culinary avant garde

[Jonathan Day]

Karen and Andew --

A glance around eGullet will make it clear that many of our members have a lot of interest in the so-called culinary avant-garde, the work of chefs like Ferran Adria, Pierre Gagnaire, Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz.

Yet of those four, only one is working in the USA.

What do you think of this movement? And, in your view, why hasn't it attracted more energy in the US?

Thanks again for joining us here!

[Andrew&Karen]

Hi Jonathan,

It's funny that you should ask this question.

We interviewed Ferran Adria of EL BULLI for our book CHEF'S NIGHT OUT: From Four-Star Restaurants to Neighborhood Favorites -- 100 Top Chefs Tell You Where (and How!) to Enjoy America's Best, with the help of chef Jose Andres of JALEO (Washington, DC), who used to work with him.

We'd wanted to ask Ferran -- who was cited by a fair share of the 100 chefs we'd inteviewed for his cutting-edge innovation -- what his experience had been dining out in the United States.

His reply? "I am a lover of what is happening in the United States. There is a generation of chefs that is looking for new things, and who, in short, will be the world's avant-garde."

This is a long, roundabout way of saying that we agree with Ferran that American chefs are in fact the world's avant-garde!

Karen & Andrew

[robert brown]

How do you define "avant-garde" as applied to cooking, and on what do you base your statement that "American chefs are in fact the world's avant-garde"?

[Andrew&Karen]

Hi Robert,

Many thanks for your post. As we went off on this topic a bit in August (8/10/03) on the subject of The New York Times Magazine cover story on Ferran Adria of El Bulli, perhaps you might wish to search eGullet.com for that posting so as not to bore others who might have already read it!

(Andrew and Karen's post on the article is here -- JD)

It's an interesting topic about which we could write a book -- or at least a few chapters! We'd love to see more discussion on this on eGullet.com. What are your thoughts, and your perspective?

Andrew & Karen

http://www.newamericanchef.com

Edited September 26, 2003 by Jonathan Day (log)