El Bulli: Adria Ferran

[Keith Talent]

I haven't been here long enough to know if it's cool to jump all over double posters.

[melkor]

[Busboy]

"The subtext of both the Adrià and the mass-market approach to food is the notion that eating has become boring and that for food to be interesting, it needs to be hypermanipulated. This is obviously the philosophy being peddled by mass-market food producers who would encourage us to snack ourselves to obesity with technological marvels like McGriddles (pancake sandwiches with the syrup "baked right in"), Dippin' Dots ice cream, and Hot Pockets. And even though Adrià and his tech-y ilk use exquisite ingredients (organic vegetables, fish that were swimming just hours before dinner), they are also deploying junk-food tactics without questioning where this industrial food aesthetic might be taking us. "

Interesting take -- and a bit of light on why I (and others, perhaps) are both seduced and repelled by the Adria approach.

Here's the link.

Edited January 30, 2004 by Busboy (log)

[tan319]

Wow, there sure are a lot of Slate reading, double or even triple posters here...

Oh well, all the better to get the El Bulli 'playas and haytas' to mix it up some more.

[Keith Talent]

I'd like someone smarter than me to explain the corelation between reading Slate and being a double poster.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'd like someone smarter than me to explain the corelation between reading Slate and being a double poster.

It has to do with the space/time continuum thing...

[Katherine]

I'd like someone smarter than me to explain the corelation between reading Slate and being a double poster.

It has to do with the space/time continuum thing...

That's what happens when the site is temporally out of order.

[Busboy]

I can't believe I missed two posts. I guess I'm not spending enough of my workday on eGullet.

[tan319]

I'd like someone smarter than me to explain the corelation between reading Slate and being a double poster.

Ummm,

Perhaps I didn't phrase it correctly.

I meant that I'm surprised that there are a lot of Slate web mag readers on here, which I suppose I shouldn't be. And, that the story had been threaded ( correct phrase?) once, then twice, then thrice, all by diferent people.

Thought maybe someone might have caught it by the second time.

No biggie.

[Fat Guy]

eGullet is going to acquire Slate. Not directly, but as a result of our planned takeover of Microsoft.

[ExtraMSG]

I'd like someone smarter than me to explain the corelation between reading Slate and being a double poster.

It has to do with the space/time continuum thing...

That's what happens when the site is temporally out of order.

Clever.

[Singapore]

Their main point is that Adria's food is not that far from "hypermanipulated" mass processed foods on supermarket shelves and fast food chains.

My take is that Adria's food is not so much close to hypermanipulated mass processed foods rather than purely imitating the hypermanipulation itself.

Ever been to a flavor or fragrance manufacturer? Places like Givaudan Roure or International Flavors and Fragrances specialize in processing herbs and spices down to a very, very condensed essence, in liquid or powder form. I've seen hundreds of pounds of cloves processed down to a gallon or two of very intense flavoring suspended in alcohol. These flavor houses can give you just about any flavor in any intensity, in liquid, solid or gaseous form. To me, the author is saying: Take this flavoring (or flavor house methodology), blow it into some half formed aspic or other suspension medium, and compare to Adria's 'cooking'. Is it uncomfortably close?

By the way, when you go to a chain restaurant, most of the sauces and marinades are pre-made in such flavor houses in five gallon buckets and shipped to each chain.

Cheers