El Bulli--From wonderful to absurd

[Richard Tan]

Steve,

I was told that Jose Andres came to collaborate on a special dinner with Rick and Gale (Bux, does this answer your question?) right after I left to start an exhaustive, exhausting year-plus-long period of study/travel and wine-"stages" through Europe (I returned recently).  I wish that I had the chance to meet/work with him as the staff found him very inspiring and enjoyed his visit very much.  

Quote: "very Bras by way of Adria with a little bit of Jose"

Heh heh, this is as suggestive and intriguing a description as it gets, yet perhaps a bit misleading.  For me, Michel Bras' is without a doubt a cuisine of terroir.  When I imagine a salad of his foraged wild herbs (and his tanaisie, his chrysanthemums, his borage flowers...), I remember the extraordinary persistence of flavor of each leaf or petal that he chooses.  I remember the salty minerality, the almost surreal hard metallic vividness that could only come from plants that grow on the granitic/volcanic soils of the Auvergne.  And then there is something of a medieval botanist in him, rich in the culture "de re herbaria"  practicing a subtle "ars combinatoria"...Piero Camporesi seems to be writing about Michel Bras himself in one of his most beautiful passages: "The mixing of a salad required subtle dosages of smell and taste of an alchemistic sort: thought-out sophistications, heavy with wise meditation and creative inventiveness etc"  It is bec of this specificity of Bras' relationship to a land, and to a tradition that (for all his culinary innovation and for all the modernism in the glass-box architecture of his restaurant), he is, to me, among all the great French chefs (think: Passard, Chibois, Gagnaire, Veyrat etc) the only one who is essentially UNTRANSLATABLE.   Untranslatable to another branch in New York, Paris or elsewhere.  Untranslatable "by way of Adria with a bit of Jose".

Superficially, Adria's way of doing work is exactly the opposite of Bras'.  It is a very different way of relating to the world.  A universal translatability/replicability is a fundamental aspect of his art.  This is how we see him from afar: thinking up and shaping his "new tricks" to perfection in his ivory tower; these would then be swallowed up and replicated endlessly in infinite variations by an eagerly-awaiting world.  Thus, we have, already as part of our collective gastronomic past, the foams, the sorbets, the "raviolis", the layered "soups", the injected puff pastry etc  In a way, Adria's methods remind me very much of those of the minimalists/conceptual artists who worked in New York (and elsewhere) during the late 60s and early 70s.  In their practice, an abstraction (a "concept") embodied in a simple set of instructions (cf John Cage's "Stand" "Sit" "Walk" etc) or as mathematical formulas (Sol LeWitt's grid calculations) already exists in the realm of art, independently of any actual expression/performance.  We go and see and touch the "Earth Room" on Wooster or the "Broken Kilometer" on W Broadway but there is a sense that the "idea-concepts" that determined these forms (in the case of Broken Kilometer: "Take 500 rods...etc") have a priority of importance.  Similarly, Adria can be seen as a brilliant perfecter of procedures: reinventing a whole new way of thinking of the world, a whole new way of denaturing the world and then coming up with as simple and economical a formula as possible so that this rethinking and this denaturing could be performed again and again-expressed as sea urchin foam in Chicago, darjeeling foam in Atlanta, truffle foam in Philadelphia etc.  Unfortunately, this supreme simplicity and clarity of his "novelties" also make it very easy to reduce his work to the status of "gimmicks":  how many times have we heard of him referred to as "oh, the foam guy?"

Ultimately, a meal at El Bulli cannot be reduced to a sequence of "concepts".  I would argue that an experience here is just as profoundly about the place where the restaurant is located as is a trip to Aubrac chez Michel Bras//Muntanya e mar in Adria//Master of salt//WILL CONTINUE LATER (Bux/Lizziee, will reply later)

Richard

[Bux]

Bux, does this answer your question?

I'm a little slow on the uptake and don't get out of NY as much as I should, but the answer is "yes" to a "T."  

[robert brown]

Richard, you are great to have around. What took you so long? The closest I have gotten to Rosas is Sergio Arolo who owns La Broche in Madrid. He worked at El Bulli for four years. (I never had the opportunity to write the rest of my Madrid post before going away.) He told me a bit apologetically after my meal that unlike Adria, he did not offer "an 18-course tasting menu”. What I had was a "conventional" meal (in terms of number of courses) with preparations based on his being an Adria disciple. He clearly was offering a tamed-down menu based on my reading of some of the El Bulli postings, which is perfectly understandable when your clientele is Madrid businessmen. (Nonetheless, one of the Spain's oligarchs told my brother that he seldom ate there because “It was not real Spanish food”) Nonetheless, I highly enjoyed my meal, although a few dishes (there were three of us eating a la carte, which was the only way one could order) were quite conventional and these turned out to be the chef's least interesting ones. I am wondering, therefore, if you and others think that Adria will end up being considered a fad or aberration, but nonetheless regarded as having made some significant midcourses changes in serious cooking.

Steve K, I do not mean to put your feet to the fire, but as you may recall I asked you during our dinner together if Adria had great technique. You replied, “His technique is nothing special; it’s his palate”. Care to elaborate?

Richard again: I loved reading your invocation of Conceptual Art. I was never an avid fan or follower. I am wondering, however, if you can make the same case for Adria’s work in the context that just maybe Conceptual Art was an advanced reworking of Duchampian sensibilities, which means you can go back at least to the Armory Show of 1910. While I am not so familiar with Sol Lewitt’s work in its totality, are grid computations related to the almost-universal use of the grid in graphic design; something that has often been attributed to Anton Stankowski in the 1930s? In other words, are there antecedents to Adria’s approaches; i.e. Chapel’s circa 1987 mushroom soup cappuchinno we previously discussed?

Any chance of telling us where and when we can avail ourselves of your keen and interesting awareness of food and wine?

[Steve Klc]

"Steve K, I do not mean to put your feet to the fire, but as you may recall I asked you during our dinner together if Adria had great technique. You replied, 'His technique is nothing special; it’s his palate'. Care to elaborate?"

Robert--no fire, no worries.  What I've presented previously on eGullet re: Adria is that those people who talk about Adria's major significance first as one of technique, one of gimmickry--predictably gloss the surface and miss his real significance and his lasting importance.  I've already made my prediction on the "Chef of the Century" thread. His technique is nothing special but at once his techniques are at least as special, as scientific and as refined as Bras or Gagnaire--and there is much to be gained in terms of technique, composition and presentation from Adria books as well as the Bras books.  But foam, shmoam.  Lazy restaurant critics, food writers and non-chefs have to understand an Adria-style foam is just like saying mousse, or emulsion, or sorbet, or cake--it is an infinitely variable culinary "form" which can be created in different ways and should be viewed as but one possible component of a larger whole.

My thesis would be Adria is palate and mind and that we have not felt the full weight of his impact yet, but we will.  Re-read Richard's excellent post where he initially chides my "very Bras by way of Adria with a little bit of Jose" (time will tell, Richard, if the description is misleading) and then moves on to some eloquent and perfectly reasonable "untranslatable cuisine/terroir" talk--which I largely (and possibly unreasonably) disagree with, certainly in the case of Adria (and Conticini while we're at it.)

Richard reveals to me that he comes closer to getting it re: Adria--as close as anyone else at eGullet or in print foodie magazines to date--when he writes "A universal translatability/replicability is a fundamental aspect of his art" and "Ultimately, a meal at El Bulli cannot be reduced to a sequence of "concepts".  I would argue that an experience here is just as profoundly about the place where the restaurant is located as is a trip to Aubrac chez Michel Bras."

Yes, the "experience" there is profoundly about the place and yes, the "techniques" are universally translatable.

However, the question I'd pose to Richard: Adria is Adria whether he cooks in Spain or New York or Napa or Bangor Maine--he easily transcends place; can the same be said of Bras?  I won't argue that forging a special relationship to the herbs and flowers and pine needles--the flora and fauna in a region--can't coalesce into a magical experience in that region at the hands of a master chef--a master interpreter of that surrounding medium.  But talk of terroir is defining, it limits significance rather than reveals it--though perhaps in Bras his significance is truly limited by terroir, by place.  I wonder if perhaps Keller--called a genius, along with Michel Richard, by Russ Parsons on another thread--is not limited by terroir at the French Laundry as well?  Will his "cuisine" and "genius" prove untranslatable in NYC?  Geniuses, for me, are inherently beyond limitation and I'd employ it a little more selectively.

Richard also seems to get that Adria's effect and impact is more liberating and universal than Bras and all the other geniuses, though he doesn't go so far as to state it.  (I don't want to put words in his mouth.)  Ferran can conceive and execute a revelatory dish out of canned, creamed corn that "works" or "translates" anywhere.  He nods politely when other elite chefs wax poetic about the absolute fundamental importance of the best possible ingredients at all times to reveal their art.  When Jose Andres serves a refined, pristine, intellectually stimulating deconstructed clam chowder on a flat plate as he did for a Beard dinner or an FCI demonstration in NYC or as a guest of Rick and Gale in Chicago--and it is so lick-your-plate-clean delicious as well as "interesting"--those in attendance are given a glimpse of Adria's universal and eminently translatable significance which is slowly being felt, slowly being realized.

It transcends, in terms of significance, the restaurant experience at El Bulli.

Robert asks "if you and others think that Adria will end up being considered a fad or aberration, but nonetheless regarded as having made some significant midcourses changes in serious cooking?"  We've felt 20% of Ferran's weight and influence and...genius so far.  At this point Adria is Michael Jordan 5 years into his NBA career or Tiger Woods right now--the best is yet to come.

[robert brown]

Steve, I suspect that Adria holds a kind of interest for you that makes an appeal to your professional work. However, to the likes of culinary lay people such as myself, were I to secure a cancelled table at El Bulli, my concern might be different than someone taking a busman’s holiday (and it does sound like there are a lot of busman’s holidaymakers passing through Rosas). I would want to know before taking to the road for five hours from Nice, or even from Barcelona on what is alleged to be a partially-arduous drive, that there is going to be some kind of reward at the destination. It does not necessarily have to be one of the best meals I have ever had, so long as it is not a travesty. It would be fine if I had a culinary encounter unlike any I have ever had, but that I could relate with a straight face.

To be candid, both Steve Plotnicki and myself shared an e-mail from Liz that was a preview of the notes that she subsequently posted. I must admit that after digesting it, I did not adhere to my original plan to call the restaurant from the South of France over the last two weeks, prepared to hop in my car immediately to take over a suddenly freed-up table. As for Steve, he changed his travel plans for mid-May, after reading the e-mail, scrubbing his stay in Barcelona also with the hope of  getting into El Bulli on a cancellation. Of course the ideal goal is for Steve and me to experience the restaurant on our own. However, Liz gave us pause by  providing us with the most recent report so far and, more important, possesses prior experience at the restaurant against which to judge her last meal, not to mention that someone who appears to be an accomplished chef wholeheartedly agreed with her on the resonance of the encounter.

I am not soliciting advice here, as I feel that there is nothing anyone can add. However, Liz’s e-mail raises the possibility that the man has now become a parody of himself, or, at the least, that fame has gone to his head. I would also like to know if you or anyone out there has heard anything recent;`i.e. another opinion from El Bulli’s 2001 season. I could then at least determine if I would be going to some place that is more a restaurant than a post-Fluxus food event (to quote my wife).

To change emphasis, do you really think that it is a positive that Adria would be Adria in any decently endowed city or region? (Or just about anywhere that sells canned goods)? Is that not an endorsement of the internationalization of cuisine? If so, do you devoutly wish it so? I suspect that Michel Bras would be the first to say that he would not be who or what he was if you took him away from his beloved Aubrac and its botanic life. After all, he got to be who he is because of them. The word “terroir” is not the one to use when I feel we should be invoking the much more legitimate phrase “gastronomic landscape”.

[Steve Klc]

Robert--I'm no more or less interested in the Adrias as I am Conticini, Keller, Herme, Kunz, Boulud, Bras, Girardet, Gagnaire, Arzak, Berasategui, Trotter, Susur, Tetsuya, Rick and Gale at Tru, Ken Oringer at Clio, Bouley, Laurent Tourondel, Rocco DiSpirito et al--I want to be as aware and knowledgeable of those cooking now as those who cooked before.  The fact that I have enough skill as a cook to replicate dishes from their books and am a decent pastry chef could increase my appreciation and my awareness but not necessarily so.  I try to evaluate and articulate why in terms anyone can understand, especially culinary lay people.  When I teach I treat lay people just like professional students and guess what--they achieve.  They get it and they surprise themselves.

I do find that there is more "to get," more appeal, more to appreciate about the Adrias but I'm a firm believer in the "proof is in the pudding" approach--it has to taste good and it has to work--for the everyday diner as well as the jaded, globe-trotting foodie.  An open mind, rather than a narrow perspective doesn't hurt, but it has nothing to do with me being a professional pastry chef.  I know alot of cynical, bitter, frustrated pastry chefs whose time has passed them by and view everything current as inferior to the past, their past.

Let's see, which cliche to employ--to experience firsthand is the only way to know (but even then that might not be enough!), there are no guarantees in life except death and taxes...but what I write does not mitigate Lizziee's report of her experience, a report I value.  I, too, would be very interested in 2001 season reports.  For all I know, her post represents the bleeding edge of a trendy, post-Adria backlash. A has-been parody that never was.  I wouldn't bet on it, though. Adria both threatens to the core and inspires to the heart alot of chefs and food writers--immediately challenging assumptions that have been relied upon and promulgated for years--especially Francophiles.  It all happened so quickly, huh?  I'd be naive to think a decline an impossibility--after all, travelling the globe--appearing on Gourmet trading cards--takes a toll on even the best chefs.

But, I actually feel the same way toward Bras as I do Adria--they're both geniuses--I think Bras could create a recognizably "Bras" atmosphere virtually anywhere given time to familiarize himself with the gastronomic landscape, as you aptly phrase it. You write "I suspect that Michel Bras would be the first to say that he would not be who or what he was if you took him away from his beloved Aubrac and its botanic life. After all, he got to be who he is because of them" and I wouldn't know how to reply, except to say that I have alot more confidence in his genius, palate, mind and spirit to believe he would remain an innovative, absolutely exceptional leading edge Michelin three-star chef elsewhere--he just wouldn't be the Bras of Aubrac.   Good subject of another thread, Robert.  As I suggested previously, geniuses are geniuses no matter where they create.

To answer your specific questions--and to try not to diminish others participation on previously raised questions--yes it's a positive Adria would be Adria everywhere; yes, it would follow that would be an endorsement of the internationalization of cuisine--I'm one of those that feel high-end modern cooking is global and neither French, American, Spanish--those terms are as limiting, deceptive and obscuring as "terroir;" I have no wish either way for it to be or not be so--cooking is what it is and the best cooking defies limits and labels imposed by others and isn't easily categorized.

[lizziee]

On this last trip (2001) we also went to Bras. I would like to quote something that Michel Bras wrote himself:

"Aubrac runs in our blood. We were born on the plateau, we spent our happy childhoods here, now we work here. Aubrac provides us with our inspiration, our reason for living.

Aubrac is also our crucible, the place where all our creative energies converge: there where our vision is sharpened, our hearing made more acute, our senses of taste, touch and smell formed and developed. Like the waterfalls, the lakes, the beech trees, even the cattle, we are born of Aubrac. We are formed in its image, by its texture, its build, its bouquet .... its song.

To take Bras out of Aubrac would be like taking the essence of the man himself. I honestly don't think you can separate one from the other. Would Bras have been moved to be a chef in some other place - who knows. But to speculate on that is not what Bras wants you to do. The entire experience at Michel Bras is centered on the region. To quote him again," The buildings have all been designed around the principle of discovery and enjoyment of Aubrac......The bedrooms .... have been designed to let you feel in perfect harmony with nature's scents, with the flowers and with the songs of the birds..... The restaurant looks out over the countryside, allowing the light to flood in."

Therefore, Steve, I honestly do not agree with you that Bras would be Bras anywhere.

In the introduction to Troisgros's cookbook there is this quote," Our father... used to say that 'cooking should be a harmony of the treasures of the good earth.'...He loved fine produce, as we do. We get our fresh snails from the schoolboys of Roanne, who hunt them in the wild nearby. From the native kitchen gardeners we get their best fresh vegetables." In other words the Troisgros brothers are as much attached to their landscape and tradition as Bras.

Marc Veyrat's cuisine is an integral part of the mountain slopes of Annecy - he wanted to bring his "mountain cuisine to the people of the valleys." (his words) Georges Blanc is tied to his childhood and Vonnas. "The three cooks before me had always cooked so lovingly, simply and with total honesty... using to the best advantage all the local produce." Maybe Ducasse says it best in his introduction to his book,"Turbot without genius is better than genius without turbot."

This has been a very long-winded way of saying that most great chefs are intimately connected to their childhood, their scenery, their land and using the freshest and best ingredients.

I am not saying that Adria doesn't feel that same pull from his landscape. As I have said repeatedly, I did see culinary genius. I just don't know where it went. The bottom line of all this intellectual discussion is that in the end food is meant to be eaten and enjoyed. You can compare cooking to the other arts - sculpture, architecture, music, painting but there is one huge major difference. A chef's works are ephemeral - they last only a few moments and the only thing that remains is the memory. I will never forget the first time I tasted Frog's Legs at Veau d'Or in New York over 45 years ago, I am still savoring the sliced potatoes with creme fraiche and black truffles at Bras, the sardines at El Bulli, the scrambled eggs with caviar at Boyer, the katafi shrimp at Citronelle, the cauliflower panna cotta with caviar at French Laundry and on and on and on. But and this is a big but, the taste sensations at El Bulli were so bad in 2001 that we dreaded our next meal - a first for all of us. Our usual behavior is as we are eating one meal and talking about that one ,we are avidly planning the next one.

Again, that is why I truly was hesitant about posting the El Bulli experience. But I do have a comparison and you would never never know that the El Bulli of this year was even remotely the same restaurant. Also, I think the most telling comment comes from the wait staff. To repeat, I asked them how many plates were returned to the kitchen either barely touched or half-eaten. Their reponse - MOST!!! I don't know about you but if I saw that my dishes were being returned like that, well.........

[Bux]

Robert Brown writes:

Steve, I suspect that Adria holds a kind of interest for you that makes an appeal to your professional work. However, to the likes of culinary lay people such as myself, were I to secure a cancelled table at El Bulli, my concern might be different than someone taking a busman’s holiday (and it does sound like there are a lot of busman’s holidaymakers passing through Rosas). I would want to know before taking to the road for five hours from Nice, or even from Barcelona on what is alleged to be a partially-arduous drive, that there is going to be some kind of reward at the destination. It does not necessarily have to be one of the best meals I have ever had, so long as it is not a travesty. It would be fine if I had a culinary encounter unlike any I have ever had, but that I could relate with a straight face.

After what Lizziee has written about her second trip, it's a bit hard for me to offer much of a guarantee, but I think my observations of our meal in 2000 are worth noting in this regard. There was a group of hikers and walkers from a Butterfield & Robinson tour who knew nothing about Michelin stars. They seemed to enjoy their evening at least as much as I did and maybe more as they did not have to adjust their perspective about what food should be. Those with a preconception of what great food is, will have the most trouble enjoying Adria. Those with no experience and those with a very open mind should do best. That said, Lizziee's post leaves us open to the possibility that Adria has gone over the top. My guess is that if that's so, it's a temporary exit and he will return to form even stronger. He may always be outside the mainstream and not always in the avant garde, but it's really hard to think he will be irrelevant in the coming decade or longer.

By the way, the arduous drive is only from Rosas to the restaurant, 7 kilometers on a road that I believe was paved, but narrow and unmarked. One should stay the night in Rosas, or alternatively perhaps sleep on the beach or pitch a tent. I recall a campground nearby.

[Bux]

Steve Klc:

But, I actually feel the same way toward Bras as I do Adria--they're both geniuses--I think Bras could create a recognizably "Bras" atmosphere virtually anywhere given time to familiarize himself with the gastronomic landscape, as you aptly phrase it.

Based more on what I read than my limited exposure which is just insufficient, I suspect this is a far more accurate statment to make about Bras than that he is "limited" by his terroir.

Lizziee, Ducasse's "Turbot without genius is better than genius without turbot," is wonderfully abstract and almost biblical. Read "food" for turbot and of course a genius can't make sustenance from nothing. Ducasse, in my mind, is merely displaying a modesty that plays well in public. Bras' cooking may well be the product of his Aubrac and there's no reason for him to move, nor can we make a case for what his genius would produce had he grown up in the Caribbean or British Columbia, but that genius is an abstract quality that is not tied to the Aubrac and it would be formidable in another time and place, even if not as a chef. That his food is that of the Aubrac is certain, but that he'd be a mediocre chef in Brittany or Provence is something I doubt and I know you didn't say that. The essence you describe is however a product of his history and could be revised given sufficient time. It's not innate, it's something he built. Maybe we don't disagree and are only offering different perspectives of the same coin. Do we define "Bras" by the food we know or the abstract genius that developed the food.

[lizziee]

Bux,

I really do hope that this was an aberration.

If you stay in Rosas, a wonderful place to stay is the  Vistabella Hotel.  The regular rooms are not expensive but if you want an over-the-top, expensive experience- try the Royal Suite. It is done with Dali in mind. There is no way to describe it completely - but a jacuzzi tub in the bedroom wing, Dali type "paintings", mirror on the ceiling,  a huge terrace overlooking the ocean, an unbelievable stereo and sound system. I think it could sleep 4 maybe 6 but they bill this as "Romantic Villa-Hotel."

By the way, the Dali museum in Figueres is a must. It is absolutely worth going to. In Figueras, you can have a good meal at La Llar - wonderful Serrano ham etc.

Under no conditions should you drive the short distance from Rosas to El Bulli particularly at night and after wine. The first time we were there, a herd of cows stopped in the road ( a road that is so narrow that there is only room for one car at a time) and we had to wait until Mommy checked us out and gave us the OK to pass.

[Bux]

By the way Lizziee, I have no doubt that your last meal at El Bulli was not what we both had in 2000 and that had I had your meal, I might well be a lot less philosophical about Adria's talents. This goes to another thread of how a good or bad personal experience will outweigh all reviews and second hand reports no matter how reliable.

[Steve Klc]

Lizziee--I think your post about your two visits to El Bulli fits right in with an emerging pattern of excellence, depth and unpredictability to be found at eGullet.  I'm sorry you had any trepidation whatsoever about posting.  You shouldn't have.

You write "To take Bras out of Aubrac would be like taking the essence of the man himself. I honestly don't think you can separate one from the other. Would Bras have been moved to be a chef in some other place - who knows. But to speculate on that is not what Bras wants you to do. The entire experience at Michel Bras is centered on the region."  I suspect Richard agrees with you and I am sure countless others do as well.  It's the party line.

Well, with no disrespect, and just as honestly, I don't care what Bras wants us to do. I'm evaluating him critically, dispassionately and unromantically. I have seen culinary myth-making at work on both coasts and in several countries.  We are all free to believe what we want about first-hand experiences and embrace the spirituality, poetry and uniqueness of cuisine and a place. I do not challenge those assessments of yours or of others.  You may not think "you can separate one (Bras) from the other" (Aubrac).  I do disagree politely.  

Bras--apart from Aubrac--and given time to embrace a different place, any place, say Providence, Rhode Island, would still be a genius, still merit three-stars, still display a vital, unique spirit--and still produce ephemeral cuisine--it just wouldn't be the cuisine of Aubrac.  The written record of his achievement, his techniques and his perspective--which I have cooked from, analyzed and compared to the achievement of others--including lesser lights like Richard and Keller--amaze me still. His significance, influence and techniques do not depend on buttercups, pine syrup and roots--are not easily defined--and they translate--they've translated to me.

As I've said, I've read every word of his dessert notebook and consider it an amazing, highly personal achievement that has relevance for every working chef and pastry chef in the world, even those that have published their own books, still to this day.  It does not depend on Aubrac but on Bras.

You can choose to speculate about this possibility and can embrace his written work, assessing where his achievement stands in relation to other 3 star Michelin chefs or not.  I have and I feel his work translates almost as much as Adria's--and certainly as much as Girardet.  (I don't mean to divert this from Adria or to rehash the Chef of the Century thread.)

Now that "Bras Essentials" and "The Dessert Notebook" have been published in English I suspect he will become even more appreciated, even more translatable and more universal.

[robert brown]

Bravo and O-lay Steve, Liz and Bux. This has turned into a marvelous thread. The discussion recalls to me the time nearly 13 years ago when I asked Pierre Gagnaire if he had been to Michel Bras’s restaurant. He told me he had not, and that Bras’s approach held nothing for him. Now it would be interesting to know if Bras has been to El Bulli and if Adrias’ cuisine holds anything for Bras. Ordinarily I would have guessed until 10 days ago that it was only American, British and younger Continental chefs who were beating the path to El Bulli’s door, with American comprising the majority since it is the USA , owing to its uneven gastronomic landscape, that is most open to adapting the work of the most innovative chefs. (Before Adria, American chefs were making Laguiole one of their “must” visits). However, on April 9, my wife and I returned to one of our favorite restaurants in Northern Italy, Ristorante Pinocchio in Borgomanero, a small industrial town between Turin and Milan. Faith Willinger’s guidebook, “Eating In Italy”, alerted us that the chef Piero Bertinotti, who appears to be about 60 years old, has now been making some dishes that were not of the Piemontese tradition that the restaurant was known for. Of the three dishes I had, two of them (agnolotti filled with “three white meats”-chicken, veal and rabbit-and roasted baby goat) were of the region. The one that was not, and which I and my wife both order and greatly enjoyed, was a coddled egg topped with a small amount of Iranian Beluga caviar that was in a yogurt foam that hid a layer of crushed almonds. Was this inspired by, if not borrowed from, Adria? To me it was a dish that well could be on the menu of La Broche, the Madrid restaurant run by an Adria disciple. To come across this dish in a traditional Piemontese restaurant owned by a middle-age chef has to tell me that Adria is most likely the most widely influential chef since Fernand Point. (By the way, I think I noticed an Adria touch or two at the two-star in Aix-en-Provence, Le Clos de la Violette).

Until we hear otherwise, my admittedly circumstantial evidence combined with a visit to Madrid last month and Liz’s relatively recent visit, which is the most recent of any on record on eGullet, is it possible that Adria, perhaps having run out of innovation room, has been trying too hard and has gone beyond the bounds of the major objective of fine cooking: making food taste good? Or, even in the face of a staff candidly saying that most dishes go uneaten, has Adria, as Steve suggests may be possible, been thrown off stride by culinary celebrityhood? Or, as Steve also wrote, is there now an Adria backlash?

In a more macrocosmic vein, does Adria represent a new paradigm in which the need to innovate, which drives the popular arts,  found its way into cuisine? Is Adria innovating for the sake of innovation, or is he one of those quantum leapers that comes along once or twice a century in various fields of creative endeavors, such as Picasso in painting, Artaud in poetry, or Wagner in Opera? He represents, it would appear, monumental change in cooking. Is it for real; driven by, or a result of, dining as a component of mass popular culture; a flash in the pan,; or, in the end, something more minor than what the food media have made it out to be? In other words, lots of questions looking for answers.

P.S. Steve, I just saw your 10:00 P.M + thread. For Bras to equal himself in Providence, he would have to be in the restaurant full-time and have a brigade that could execute his ever-changing food. I assume that you are assuming he does like Daniel and Jean-Georges, which would really mean being here for good. Let me count the chefs who have tried to operate in two countries at once and flopped. But I know what you mean. I have to say, however, I think he would become enormously frustrated given what he would have to cook with.

[Richard Tan]

Continued from above (I apologize for my rudeness in leaving in mid-sentence):

Ultimately, a meal at El Bulli cannot be reduced to a mere sequence of "concepts".  I would argue that the specificity of Ferran Adria's own "performances" (to extend the conceit I developed above) is just as untranslatable, just as uniquely individual, and-yes-just as profoundly involves "terroir" as the work of Michel Bras at Aubrac.  The sensational novelty of his many unorthodox methods has led to the foregrounding of this "conceptual" dimension in his art, but an insistence on "techniques" has unfortunately led to a flattening-to the point of caricature ("oh, the foam guy?")-of our understanding.  I look back on that meal I had there and do not know how to begin to articulate the sheer emotion I experienced.  Many of the dishes continue to have a haunting effect: their power to disturb and to transfix, the endless web of thought that is opened up, the breathtaking inevitability of  his gestures-all these elude replicability.  Encountering these dishes on hand, one sees the problematic nature of assuming the priority of "concept".  In context, the techniques (so easily "detachable" retrospectively) manifest their logic as elaborations to work through and solve some prior dilemma of thought or perhaps even personal (psychosexual?) obsessions; they acquire their resonance and their afterlife as "replicable concepts" after the fact, in the wide world beyond the realm of Cala Montjoi.  

I propose to reconstruct two of these dishes and try to analyze the nature of my emotion.  I have chosen two works that have not received any comment (as far as I know) in the media.  Both works involve remarkable technical achievements which I do not fully understand as I have not seen any recipes/explanations.  These "techniques" are not foregrounded and have not been reduced to easy "handles" perhaps never will be bec of the almost personal, "quiet", thoughtful, non-extroverted nature of these dishes.  Both dishes are apparently conventional in nature and their sheer radicalism emerge only after a second look.  Moreover, the first work "Cigalas en texturas" has the dour, monochromatic (browns!) scheme that we associate with certain (older, traditional) cuisines of Spain and seems to retire behind this facade.  The second work "Sopa de levaduras" (Yeast soup, or perhaps better translated as "Fermenting soup" "Soup of ferments" or even "Leaven"; this is in Lizziee's 2000 menu) occupies the position that corresponds to that of "pre-dessert" (or "dessert-amuse-bouche" as Gale calls it) in a traditional degustation and gets lost in the shuffle probably bec of this transitional position.  Neither one has ceased to haunt my thoughts since that day.

(Need to take a break; will be right back)

Richard

[Patrice]

Bras is opening a restaurant in Japan...

[Jennifer]

My guess is that espardenyes was a visual pun as "espardenyes" was in quotes on the menu.

A somewhat belated (and prosaic, given subsequent posts) response to the sea cucumber question. It is so little known outside Catalunya that it often appears on menus as "espardenya", in quotation marks, because the non-Catalan-speaking Spanish don't recognise its castellano translation - cohombro.

Espardenya, incidentally, is Catalan for espadrille - which it's supposed to resemble, lying flat on the sea bed. (I think in France it's known as 'sandale de mer').

If anyone has Alan Davidson's superb Companion to Food, look up the entry for sea cucumber. I guarantee you will not read a more entertaining snippet of food writing this year.

[Steve Klc]

No, Robert, my wild, unproveable Providence teaser is pick him up and drop him and his team whole in Providence and forget all about Aubrac.  That's the only place he'd be.  In short order, the man and the mind who wrote those books--Bras Essentials and The Dessert Notebook--would be the best chef in America, the skill and the techniques would show through and clearly surpass those of lesser culinary "geniuses" like Michel Richard and Thomas Keller--and Bras would create a different, but still three-star Michelin experience.

Thank you for sharing the little anecdote about finding the yogurt foam in an unlikely place--that is exactly, precisely the kind of effect we will start to see more of.  (Not foam used and misunderstood by a trend-seeking New York chef who wants to be seen as cutting edge, but someone connected to his food, with grounded skills who chooses to employ it to create anew.) In this case it happened to be a dreaded foam--but what it represents for that chef and for his dining public is a willingness to think and cook with an open mind--assimilate and challenge and embrace.  The true culinary geniuses inspire that.

Richard--you aren't incorrect in your line of pursuit regarding the parallels of Bras and Adria at their restaurants as just as much about terroir, as uniquely individual and personal, and equally as much about terroir--that's a nice thesis; I'm just already beyond that and say that neither would fall from the very short list of best chefs in the world if you forcibly uprooted them and plunked them down in a different environment and said create.  I do think Adria would translate more seamlessly but the Bras revealed in his books would, too.

Robert--perhaps a younger Gagnaire was not prepared to go deeper into the Bras cannon of technique because he himself was pushing forward so quickly in certain exploratory directions, or perhaps because at that elite level rivals can't be seen to connect, I do not know.  I can tell you there is such refinement, technical innovation, subtlety, acuity and achievement in the Bras Dessert Notebook that it at least rivals and clearly surpasses everything except Adria in this generation and Girardet's first book in the previous generation.

[Bux]

is it possible that Adria, perhaps having run out of innovation room, has been trying too hard and has gone beyond the bounds of the major objective of fine cooking: making food taste good? Or, even in the face of a staff candidly saying that most dishes go uneaten, has Adria, as Steve suggests may be possible, been thrown off stride by culinary celebrityhood? Or, as Steve also wrote, is there now an Adria backlash?

Anything is possible and with just one report, it's hard to say anything other than to note that Lizziee's post is clearly not a backlash. She went as a fan and in anticipation of a second great experience.

As for American chefs beating a path to El Bulli, it should be remembered that Ducasse was one of Adria's early public admirers. When we were there, we were among the last to leave at lunch and we had a conversation with a manager who, I assume, was Soler. He noted, in response perhaps to some leading comments I made about a NY restaurant, that Adria looks more towards the US, than to France with admiration for our ability to be creative.

Bras would not find the same ingredients, or the same quality as easily in Rhode Island as in the Aubrac, but I woudn't argue he'd be a chef if he grew up in Providence, only that his talent would be likely to find some outlet.

[Steve Klc]

Bux--note that there was a print media reference Lizziee referred to earlier in the thread reinforcing my speculation of a media backlash.  I wouldn't intimate Lizziee's report is evidence of anything of the kind.  I would choose the aberration hypothesis until others weighed in.  Lizziee felt trepidation and clear anguish over posting as she did--she shouldn't have and we're all grateful she did.  However, what the media buildeth, the media can try to knock down, especially when some in the media never got Adria and might have or had other competing agendas of their own.  I have openly hinted at a few reasons why such an attempt could be forthcoming in the media--and in no way ascribe any such intent to Lizziee.  She's a peach and a fantastic addition to the community.

Robert--it would have been interesting for you to have pinned Gagnaire down, in his own words, as to what exactly was the "Bras approach that held nothing for him."

And Bux, as we've commented here on other threads, Adria is not alone to looking toward and valuing the US--so too does Philippe Conticini value the spirit and creativity and freedom of the US, which he finds lacking in France as well.

[lizziee]

Bux and Steve,

Thank you for understanding that backlash was the furthest from my mind. I was a huge fan. To conjole two chefs to leave their kitchens, travel to Rosas just so that one chef could experience the excitement and wonder we had felt and the other chef to re-experience what he also thought was incredible was no easy feat. I truly hope that what happened was an aberration.

After our first meal, Adria gave me his cookbook,"Los Secretos de El Bulli" (1997) My Spanish being worse than my French, I can only comprehend the smallest portion. But you can feel his passion. It is interesting to note how he organizes his cookbook:

Relexiones (100 pages)

Acerca de la creatividad

Los Sentidos

Acerca del restaurante

Tecnicas y Recetas (only after 100 pages does he even mention techniques or give a recipe)

Bux and Steve

I also agree with both of you that Bras would be great where ever he was. My argument was essentially that his talent would be very very different if not in Aubrac. But why or why Steve did you pick Providence????

Steve,

At some point would you go into detail re Bras Essentials and Dessert Notebook. Obviously, this is a must read, but I would like to know why you feel this is one of the most influential books.

Also, Steve, thank you so much for the kind words. It truly was very difficult for me to post the El Bulli experience. I am not one to trash chefs. Also what nut would drive from  Laguiole to Rosas because I just had to eat there again.

[Steve Klc]

I could've picked Newark or Trenton or Hartford or you get the picture.  It wouldn't matter. (Though it would be harder to go on long runs through the woods and hills of Newark...)

[Robert Schonfeld]

I am enjoying this thread immensely, especially for the many and diverse learning experiences it offers. I am also admiring of the critical and expressive faculties of a number of the posters, and, not least, I am envious of the available time it must take to think about and write these essays. The only other possibility - the one suggested by Woody Allen about his own writing style - of finished product emerging freely and whole from the mind to the page, is enough to frustrate me altogether.

I am an eater. I see my place in the culinary scheme of things as a consumer, so the goals I have when going out, and the questions I ask in retrospect revolve largely around whether or not my entire experience was enjoyable. As with art, I know I will enjoy more if I know more, and so I am open to learning what I can about chefs, food, cooking and dining. But in the end, the question is always, "Did I have a good time?" "Would I go back?"

Just a few things have come to mind as I read that I'd like to share.

First, the Armory show was in 1913 (February), not 1910, which was the date of the first exhibition of Independent Artists, important in its own right, and for building on the success of the 1908 exhibition of "The Eight". Screw the National Academy.

With regard to the comment that Adria could work a wonder with a can of creamed corn, would anyone agree that doing so might be analogized with Picasso's magic transformation of a bicycle seat and a set of handlebars into the head of a bull? (We might go in a slightly different direction by talking about bits of newspaper used in collage.) And if so, what might the relationship of these efforts be to the artist's casting in bronze, or the chefs under discussion using the purest, most special local ingredients? I would ask too what readers think about the line so often atributed to Picasso: "I've spent my entire life learning to draw like a child"? In the world of restaurant eating, this reminds me of so many meals eaten in places off the beaten track in Italy, where the emphasis was always on the smallest number of ingredients of the best possible quality, combined as simply as possible. My favorite recollection along these lines concerned a highly talented local chef in Tuscany who went one day to the butcher for veal, with the idea of a simple roast, preceded by handmade egg pasta coated with the juices. When she was offered the day's selection, she asked, "What calf is this from"? "It's from senore Valdeste's brown calf, the one with the white spot over his right eye, senora," she was told, to which she replied with a frown and a stern wag of her finger, "Not for me. I knew that calf. He was no good."

[Richard Tan]

Trying to catch up here with this thread (pant, pant, pant) between tasks.  I am still trying to find some quiet time so that I do not lose my above line of thought and so that I finish to shape/expand the argument.  I felt so provoked however (yes ;), by you, Mr. Steve Klc ;) by you!) that I just have to jump back to the fray if only for a few minutes...

First, to Jennifer and also to Bux,

re: Espardenyes

Yes, thanks for the reference to Davidson: truly delightful piece of writing.  Espardenyes is Catalan plural for Espardenya: sorry for the carelessness.  I was up at Northwestern University yesterday and stopped by the library to look up on the anatomy of the class Holothuroidea (the class of sea cucumbers) because it is not at all very clear in Davidson (and in Colman Andrews) exactly which parts of the Stichopus regulis are eaten.  My own impression is that, in high-cuisine/restaurants, the leathery body-wall/epidermis is not served.  It is the inner layer of circular muscles and specifically the longitudinal retractor bands that one cuts out for use.  Ferran Adria uses the word "filamentos" to refer to these retractor muscles which work just like rubber bands and allow the animal to stretch and contract at will.  

Found other carelessnesses/typos in my posts.  One little clarification: the Aubrac is of course technically just outside the official boundary of the Auvergne but geologically it extends the volcanic terroir of the Massif Central which is why I identified it loosely above as Auvergnat (instead of Rouergat) in terroir.

Robert Brown,

Thanks for your very interesting questions.  I will try to organize an answer for you in a separate post.

Steve,

Quote: "High-end modern cooking today is global...terms as limiting, deceptive and obscure as terroir..."

About three weeks ago, I saw a compelling work by David Gatten, a young experimental filmmaker who used to be based in Chicago (he's now teaching in Rochester; his other films were selected for this year's Whitney Biennial).  It is called "What the water said, 1-3".  He took raw unexposed film stock and threw it into crab traps located in various parts of the Atlantic Coast: I think part 1 in North Carolina somewhere, part 2, 3 in New England (?)  Altered chemically by the different salts of the ocean and by the osmoregulating/biological processes of the crabs, the films became extraordinary abstractions/washes of colors.  The most remarkable thing is that each film stock at each location registered a completely different spectrum of colors, completely different patterns based on the specific composition of salts/minerals in each place and based on the pattern of waves specific to that area etc.  Moreover, these colors/patterns also changed from day to day for each location depending on other factors such as the tides etc.  For Gatten, it was probably just a fortuitous discovery that turned into an fascinating artistic procedure, but for me it was the most amazing VISUAL objective correlative of this idea of the specificity/sanctity of place.  We know that marine animals (crustaceans, mollusks, fishes etc) alter their body mechanisms (their weight, the salinity content of their body, the texture of their tissues etc) to adapt to changing aspects of their environments (tides, turbulences etc).  Many food (and wine!) cultures have learned to read and to understand such "differences" within the natural world (and I have some more to say later about this re Ferran's "Cigalas en texturas").  Yet we pretend that anything shipped in, next day air by UPS or FedEx, is consequently "fresh" without regard to whether or not any kind of harmless little commercial compromises ("Oh, its such a small difference, it shouldn't matter") have been made in the process that deviate from that intimate, local understanding.  No, I am not trying to subvert the system here: yes, we understand this necessity for pragmatism in our modern world etc etc-but to say that the idea of terroir is "limiting, deceptive, obscure"!!!

In fact, it should be the absolute horizon, the ultimate reference point for any kind of thinking about food and wine.

Believe, Steve, believe!!!  The truth will set you free.

Richard

[Jinmyo]

Richard, I'm just wondering if you've seen this thread: Steingarten on Local Food Products under Starters > Food Media and News. I think you might be interested.

[Steve Klc]

Richard, we agree more than you realize.  I have no problem with "this idea of the specificity/sanctity of place."  Just don't tell me, given enough time to explore, Bras couldn't hike through the woods of Maine and come back stimulated and motivated by odd encounters with Scotch pine or fir needles, wild herbs and leaves, locally slaughtered meats, make his unique "licorice" powder or hazelnut salt and make milk skin from local cows and create a fantastic meal that would be Bras--visually, aesthetically, technically superior albeit with subtle changes and adjustments due to the different aromas and fragrances and textures of those local raw ingredients.

The reason I refer to talk of terroir as limiting, deceptive and obscuring--with respect to chefs not with winemakers--is because it is just another attempt to define a chef--to categorize or slot him like a wine!--and the best chefs transcend their place and their cuisine transcends labels--those that are geniuses or poets or even those that are exceptionally skilled practitioners can do what they do anywhere--in France, Spain or Providence--and their meals in three different locales using the same list of ingredients but procured locally would be as distinctly inflected as your wonderful film stock analogy--yet still of one mind and one creative spirit.

My perspective doesn't diminish the experience of Bras in Aubrac; however, it also doesn't diminish Bras.

It would be a leap on your part, and not valid, to then extend my view to include "Yet we pretend that anything shipped in, next day air by UPS or FedEx, is consequently "fresh" without regard to whether or not any kind of harmless little commercial compromises ("Oh, its such a small difference, it shouldn't matter") have been made in the process that deviate from that intimate, local understanding."

I don't pretend or compromise about too much.  Each chef has the right to make up his own mind how he will work, create and factor in the materials and mediums at his disposal.  I certainly begrudge no chef or cook the option of having an ingredient flown in for any reason--nor do I begrudge the use of commercial ingredients--either would be like denying an artist a certain color blue.  Would it be nice if that blue were locally available? sure.  Would it be nice if another, similar but subtly distinct blue shade available locally could be substituted? sure. Would it be better still if the artist mixed up his own blue hue from locally sourced pigments? possibly but not necessarily so. It's still his choice and the main thing that matters, to me, is what he does with it.

Also, with so many things Richard, there is no intimate, local understanding anyway--what's the intimate local understanding of the Valrhona chocolate Bras (probably) uses or the Chocovic Adria uses? (I can hear John Whiting weighing in the background saying well, neither are organic, neither are fair trade and he'd be right but I don't think that's what you mean.)  What would be different would be the cream and the yogurt Bras might find in those three different parts along the Atlantic coast--so when he made a version of his wonderful yogurt cream for a dessert, with the meringue folded into it and then sandwiches it elegantly as an inverted "napoleon" in between the thinnest, crispest triangular sheets of some type of pastry--say his really inventive (and delicious) gingerbread powder which is 1) cooked in a caramel--then 2) poured out, allowed to get rock hard, then 3) pulverized into a powder again and 4) reformed into an impossibly thin tuile in the oven and 5) removed, allowed to cool until service--well each of the three desserts would be in some small way distinct, possibly undetectably distinct if Bras tested and experimented with each local variety for fat content and active cultures and, because of his genius and scientific mind and experience was able to make adjustments--or perhaps because of that genius allowed the active bacterias, so different in each area, to shine through.

Adria isn't doing something substantially different when he dries out artichokes or whatever, grinds them into powders and reforms them into thin flavorful fun lollipops and diverting little tapitas.  They may be of that particular place--at that time--but they are of something wholly beyond that place, too.

It would still be Bras, just as it would still be Adria, anywhere.

Start a new thread about your terroir as absolute horizon for thinking about food and wine Richard, it would be a good one and here's not the place for it. I'd love to see you try to counter my belief that chefs can transcend their place--that the very best chefs are eminently translatable to use your very apt word--and can embrace their locally available ingredients if they so choose whereas winemakers have no choice. (That truth just might set you free and save you alot of time.)