Chef Ferran Adrià

I was fortunate enough to attend an Interview and Q&A session with Ferran Adrià this week. I was told a week earlier about his appearance in Toronto and at first was reluctant to go because of the cost. However, I rethought my decision and figured that I would be incredibly fortunate to attend this event.

The afternoon was to be an Interview followed by a Question & Answer session from the audience. However, Chef Adrià came with a presentation. He didn't talk about food, technique, theory, or cooking, instead he presented us with his philosophy. Philosophy of what it means to cook, eat, create, and work as a cook.

I think I'd be doing a great disservice and injustice to the man if I attempted to summarize his entire presentation. The two most significant points of his lecture, to me (as I understood them), were:

Technique

Everything is based upon technique. For him to be creative and truly revolutionary everything was upon the basis of technique. He spoke using the metaphor of creating a new written language; that language being based upon single characters or letters, the techniques. From this foundation of technique you built and composed recipes and dishes in the same sense that you built words. Words are then naturally followed by sentences and further followed by phrases and paragraphs. Technique is the fundamental basis of everything.

Creativity

"If someone hands you a card that says Creative, do not believe them."

Ferran spoke about creativity and how anything can be the basis of new creation and ideas. Creation is simply always there, it is the ability to take hold of the opportunity of creation that is special on its own.

Chef Adrià is so far ahead of our time, he has nothing but himself and his creations to benchmark against. He is the Leonardo da Vinci of the modern gastronomic revolution. The best Chef in the world who cooks at the best restaurant in the world.