Gourman: El Bulli

Rarely can you hear someone who has changed an industry, being a turning point in an economic sector, such as Westinghouse, Musk, Ford, Gates, Disney or Channel, as characters of the stature of Ferran Adrià, of such dimensions that transcend their own industry, so much so that the University of Aberdeen grants him a Ph.D. honoris causa in Humanities, comparing him with Picasso and Miró, and the University of Barcelona the doctorate honoris causa for his contributions in Chemistry.

Gourman: La Causa Alex Lau’s new restaurant is located on Toledo and Zaldumbide streets in Quito.

Thanks to the courtesy of Movistar, we had the opportunity to listen to his innovation talk and then have a brief conversation with him.

–What do you think, does a monkey cook when it peels a banana? He blurts out the question almost without waiting for an answer. –Well, cooking is a somewhat more complex process, isn’t it? –Is it very different than when a person fillets a fish and makes sashimi? Finally, we hominids existed more than two million years ago, and only 500,000 years ago we discovered fire, and with it, techniques for deeper transformation of food.

-In a stake tartare, Who cooks? The chef who cuts the ingredients and makes the mise en placehe maitre d’ who mixes them in front of the table (usual practice in European restaurants), or the diner who puts them on the bread in the desired proportions? The answer is that maybe all three do. Adrià has dedicated his life to seeking the limits of the gastronomic experience, using all the senses.

He closed El Bulli at the height of his fame and created a gastronomic research laboratory, El Bulli 1846, a number indicative of the number of recipes generated throughout the life of his restaurant.

Few restaurants in history have had so many stars, such as Redzepi Aduriz, José Andrés, Roca, Achatz, Botura, Lutaud, among many others. Likewise, few restaurants have had so many distinctions: three Michelin stars, three Repsol suns, best restaurant in the world, Metropolis Award for innovation, Grand Prix de L’Art de la Cuisine. Clé d’Or de la Gastronomie, Cross of Saint Joege, Silver Spoon, Don Quixote Award, President of the Bocuse d’Or, covers in Times Magazine, Le Monde and in New York Timesconsidering him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Finally, I convinced myself that the chef who fillets a fish to make sashimi cooks because he has a goal and knows where he wants to go, using different techniques, even if they are archaic, and the monkey doesn’t, he doesn’t have a clear goal of where he wants to go. with the transformation that a banana undergoes when being peeled… Or is it?

Adrià continues his interrogation. What is the difference between innovation, creator and creativity?

Anyone who loves gastronomy should investigate, since it will not be possible to prove the work of this innovator. (EITHER)