TDG: 27 Small Courses of Ferran Adria

[Dave the Cook]

Jonathan Day and Moby Pomerance spent a recent afternoon with the reigning king of avant garde cuisine. Discuss it here; read about it here.

Be sure to check The Daily Gullet home page daily for new articles (most every weekday), hot topics, site announcements, and more.

[Pan]

Jonathan and Moby, that's one of the most interesting articles I've read on eGullet. So much food for thought. I'll just focus on one sentence that particularly struck me:

I love cooking, but I don't want to die in the kitchen.

What do you think Adria means by that? I know of painters who'd like to die in their studios and musicians who'd like to die onstage. Everyone has to die somewhere. So why not in the kitchen?

[docsconz]

Outstanding. It took me a little bit to figure out the format, but once I did it was perfect for the subject - very enlightening. This is why I became a member of eGullet one year ago.

[Opson]

Quite pretentious, and a missed opportunity. Why the absurd format? Why so little text?

I'm really disappointed.

[Andy Lynes]

I loved reading this, looks really nice as well, a very interesting use of the medium. A similar experience to reading Gagnaire's "Reflections on Culinary Artistry". More enlightening and enjoyable than a straightforward Q&A format.

[Jinmyo]

We used to be open for lunch, but we had to work 18 hours a day. Now we're open in the evening, and we only work 13 hours a day.

[MobyP]

We wanted to make something of the two experiences that wasn't a straight linear representation of the day - A followed B followed C - but was influenced by who he is, what he was saying etc. Just as so much of what he plays with in his food are actually your expectations of what a meal should be.

For the linearly disadvantaged, we'll be making available the transcript of the interview (not sure where/when but somewhere/soon). Although I should warn you comma that the punctuation is entirely ours semi-colon and so dash some might say dash an assault on his true meaning exclamation mark

BTW - it was great day. Really extraordinary to meet the man, and see the demonstration.

[John Whiting]

Having worked with avant-garde musicians for almost forty years, I flatter myself that my bullshit detector is fairly sensitive. Reading this verbal/visual report, it did not give off any warning signals. In fact, I was convinced that it told me more about Adria than I had learned from any other single source.

I was strongly reminded of John Cage, whom I knew and worked with on several occasions over the years. What they have in common, I sense, is that if neither of them had ever become famous, the nature of their work would have been no different. Worldly success, whether fame or fortune, was neither their motive nor their measure. Their value to the rest of us is not to provide a norm for our daily listening or eating, but to create an experience which can transform our sensory perceptions, so that we hear or taste in a more intense and attentive way.

An Adria meal, I would imagine, could be like an extended performance of Cage's 4'33", leaving behind a heightened awareness of one's sensory environment.

[Chad]

Jonathan & Moby -- that was a blast! Thank you so much. The man seems very down to earth and approachable. Nice last shot, Moby. Did anybody else catch that Adria is holding a copy of The Daily Gullet?

Chad

[jackal10]

Need recipies...

[Bux]

Quite pretentious, and a missed opportunity. Why the absurd format? Why so little text?

I'm really disappointed.

Because it's not like every other article you've read? Creativity is pretetious to anyone who finds the world good enough as it is. There's no missed opportunity when one tries to do anything.

Were this a failure, I don't think I'd find it disappointing. I'd see it as the chance to think creatively about reporting in general. It is however, a very interesting and successful article. I thought it captured the style of El Bulli in a most abstract manner. If at times it left me confused, unsatisfied or wanting the obvious answer to the obivious question, that was provocative and reminiscent of a meal at El Bulli.

[Pan]

An Adria meal, I would imagine, could be like an extended performance of Cage's 4'33"

You really dislike music in restaurants, I see.

I really was not reminded of John Cage at all while reading that article, but I guess that's neither here nor there. I didn't know him personally, though I know people who did and wouldn't agree with your take on him, but that's also neither here nor there...

[John Whiting]

You really dislike music in restaurants, I see.   

I like the music of civilized conversation, which could be construed as an extended performance of 4'33".

EDIT: There is nothing so oppressively present as that which is neither here nor there.

Edited April 5, 2004 by John Whiting (log)

[alacarte]

Jonathan & Moby, thanks for a striking presentation.

Can you please give us more of the "backstory"? How did you come to this opportunity to spend time with Adria, what happened when you were there, why you decided to use the storytelling format you did (and the challenges of getting that together)?

Also, did you take all the photos, or were some supplied by El Bulli?

[lala]

Fabulous! While I have never eaten at El Bulli, this made me understand it a lot more. Modern Jazz writing. cool.

[Revallo]

Thank you Mr. Day and Moby, you made my night. Great Article (menu)!

[Opson]

Quite pretentious, and a missed opportunity. Why the absurd format? Why so little text?

I'm really disappointed.

Because it's not like every other article you've read? Creativity is pretetious to anyone who finds the world good enough as it is. There's no missed opportunity when one tries to do anything.

Just because Adria has re-defined the formal conventions of his medium, it doesn't follow that the writers of this article need, or have the talent, to do the same. I'm interested in Adria, not in Day & Pomerance and how they think they can improve the written medium.

[MobyP]

alacarte - first of all, apologies, JD should fill you in on some of this, but I think he's enjoying himself too much with family on vacation. The interview came by luck - someone posted that Adria was in town and would be giving a cooking demo - but we had heard that it was open only to industry. I took a chance, called, presented my obviously formidable credentials, and the lovely Ms. María José Sevilla generously said we could come. "Oh, and would you like an interview?"

Ferran himself was - to thoroughly misjudge him - entirely Napoleonic on first meeting - he strolled through the lobby with us scurrying behind. He turned out to be generous, expansive, and encouraging, resembling nothing like a 19th Century despotic Frenchman in the slightest. He had some knowledge of The Daily Gullet from the many eGulleters that had passed his doorway, and I believe Robert Brown who had visited the Taller, and written about it. BTW, for further proof, a French camera crew filmed at least part of the interview for a documentary they're producing.

As to the format - well, it was creative decision, inspired by Adria, his manner, his ability to be tangential, but also a history of Latin America ("Memory of Fire") written by Eduardo Galeano - who has a beautiful, almost photographic way with narrative that interests me.

[John Whiting]

I'm delighted to see that a number of eGullet's correspondents appreciate what our team was able to do in its brief verbal/visual presentation. It reminds me so vividly of a perceptive documentary on a great Canadian pianist -- 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould -- that I find it hard to imagine that the resemblance was not deliberate. The presentation is fragmentary and yet it comes together into a coherent whole, just as an episodic career may exhibit an unplanned but ultimately coherent unity.

Some one -- was it Jonathan over lunch? -- referred to Adria's art as Zen-like. It was this quality that reminded me so vividly of John Cage. The simple, direct statement, at first mystifying but, if one is patient, containing its own inherent explanation. The very quality that intrigued Cage so much in Balinese culture: "We don't have any art, but we try to do everything as well as we can."

[Bux]

Quite pretentious, and a missed opportunity. Why the absurd format? Why so little text?

I'm really disappointed.

Because it's not like every other article you've read? Creativity is pretetious to anyone who finds the world good enough as it is. There's no missed opportunity when one tries to do anything.

Just because Adria has re-defined the formal conventions of his medium, it doesn't follow that the writers of this article need, or have the talent, to do the same. I'm interested in Adria, not in Day & Pomerance and how they think they can improve the written medium.

I don't know that Adria has re-defined anything, but he does have the ability to work outside other people's definitions. I didn't mean to imply that Day or Pomerance had Adria's talent, nor do many of the chefs and cooks who please me at their tables. My culinary, artistic and journalistic stimulation often comes from those whose feats are not quite at the stratospheric level of re-definition. I often suspect there's been more published on Adria in English on this site than anywhere else. Day already had a nice prose report. For what it's worth, I thought this poem was a lovely addition. I'm sorry, you were disappointed by their performance, I trust you don't mind us taking pleasure in it.

[John Whiting]

Day already had a nice prose report.

Could you provide a link, please?

[Steve Klc]

In case anyone missed this the first time around:

http://egullet.com/?pg=ARTICLE-dayonelbulli

This new piece, eGullet's first tome poem, was fantastic guys. I wish there was a way to scroll through it on a blank white screen and without the distracting sidebars. I can see why some aren't going to appreciate the lack of extended narrative, but since Adria himself is still misunderstood or consciously maligned in certain circles, you're ahead of the game by presenting him this way. I respect your artistic choice, as I respect his.

[edsel]

Moby and Jonathan,

Thank you for a very entertaining piece.

For the linearly disadvantaged, we'll be making available the transcript of the interview (not sure where/when but somewhere/soon). Although I should warn you comma that the punctuation is entirely ours semi-colon and so dash some might say dash an assault on his true meaning exclamation mark

BTW - it was great day. Really extraordinary to meet the man, and see the demonstration.

Consider me "diadvantaged". I am curious about the linear progression of the event, not to mention which preparations were actually demonstrated that day. I'm guessing that he didn't actually prepare the Griddled Vegetables with Charcoal Oil as your montage might suggest. Wouldn't it take too long given the time allotted?

[MobyP]

The day started at 11.30 with a half hour interview with myself and Jonathan (plus French Film crew), and Adria.

At 2.30, the demo began. From my notes - Dishes prepared:

Spray Margherita

Ice cube cocktail

Mojito with Seltzer foam

Caramelized quail egg yolk w/salt

Asparagus with warm mayonnaise foam and asparagus ice cream (pacojet)

Carrot Air, with coconut and curry

Red Mullet bones Cotton Candy floss

Sugar paper ravioli w/ white truffle

Melon Caviar (uses of alginate + Calcium chloride)

Floating rose water globules gnocchi

Parmesan spaghetti

Langoustine w/ large egg (salmon?) gelatin canneloni

Squid ravioli filled with cocnut milk

Lardo ravioli (grilled to transluscent) filled with cockles (the best way to cook cockles)

Milk skin canneloni of yogurt

Bread and sardine ‘empanada’

Foie Gras ‘snow’ ice cream with classical consomé

Cold and hot pea soup

I believe JD was in contact with another eGulleter who was there - perhaps he might share his recollections. If I can expand on any particular dish, let me know (although may not be able to until next week).

[edsel]

Wow, that's quite a list of techniques to demonstrate in one afternoon! Floating rose water globules? I'm still trying to picture it.

Thanks for the list, Moby.