October 13, 2008
The Set up: As
part of the New York Public Library’s “Live from the New York Public Library”, series http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/pep/peplist.cfm, world renowned chef Ferran Adria
was in town as a featured speaker. He
was there to talk about his extreme avant-garde style of cooking, as well as to
promote his book “A Day at El Bulli”.
Billed as “The Salvador Dali of Cooking”, Adria is a colorful personality, and
a great addition to the New York Public Library’s top-notch series.
El Bulli?:Few
people have had or will have the opportunity to dine at this world renowned and
highly celebrated restaurant. Thankfully, Adria’s giant tome, generously
flavored with photos and notes, takes us inside El Bulli – minus the actual
food, of course. Of the over 500 people in the room, less than a dozen raised
their hands when asked who had dined there. But there were several dozen
young chefs along with some of the city’s culinary luminaries, like Lidia
Bastianich, listening intently as moderator Corby Kummer (author of The Pleasures of Slow Food) salivated at
the opportunity to quiz “The Master”.
Why all the fuss?:
Many food writers and culinary professionals consider Ferran Adria the world’s
greatest chef. Much of the praise comes from his ground-breaking use of liquid
nitrogen in the kitchen – in other words, cooking with cold, extreme cold (-196 °C/-321 °F).
It is quite spectacular what he does with a liquid so cold it boils when anything
is placed in it. Some call Adria’s style “molecular gastronomy” or “scientific
cooking”, terms he eschews. As he points out, the process of bread making is a
much more complicated, and is one that we all take for granted. But it
is chemistry.
Chemistry?: Liquid
nitrogen exists at a temperature so cold it will freeze vodka (which he makes
into ice cream). What happens to food placed in liquid nitrogen depends upon
many factors, some of which are the water content of the food, the kinds of
gases present, the fats and proteins, and the minerals. For example, a
tablespoon of ground pistachio puffs up into a lovely green ball about the
size of a Haas avocado. The outer later is crisp, the inner portion creamier. Remarkable.
But what is so astounding about this technique, once we get past the novelty of
cooking with cold rather than heat, is the purity of the flavors. No fats are
added in the process. The flavors are not bound with introduced fats when they
hit our tongues. Therefore, we taste the real essence of the food. And for the
Slow Food movement, the new generation of young chefs and for the new American
consumers whose palates are much more sophisticated than our parents’, Adria is
a master of the surreal.
What is the future?:
Now that we have learned to cook with extreme cold, what’s next? Adria was
adamant about a few key things. First, that the worst cooking is avant-garde
cooking poorly done. We agree with this assessment. He also believes that “deconstruction”
is passé. We also agree. But where do go from his avant-garde culinary surrealism,
which fools the brain by means of the eye? What kind of Post-Modernism can a
young chef bring to the plate? We are indeed entering a period of culinary Différance,
where free play is boundless. With the advent of Slow Foods, with the
increasing role of the Chef as artist and indeed rock star, and with the
locovore movement (those who believe in local food supply chains), there are
many variables.
Final Note: Adria’s
major point for the evening was Education, not only that of young chefs who
must apprentice in the best kitchens of the world, but also the Education of
the consumer’s palate. Children must be taught the basics in taste at an early
age so that they can appreciate flavors, rather than cover them up, or fear
them. Open the taste buds, open the mind.
Tags:
avant garde cooking, Corby Kummer, culinary trends, Ferran Adria, Ferran Adria at NYPL, Live from the New YOrk Public Library
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Posted on 10/13/2008
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