A Day at El Bulli - Hardcover

Adrią, Ferran; Soler, Juli; Adrią, Albert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714848832 ISBN 13: 9780714848839

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2008

Synopsis

''Ferran stands head and shoulders above any other chef cooking in the world today...truly in a class of his own.'' -- Gordon Ramsay

''Ferran Adria is one of the most generous creative geniuses the world has ever known...this book offers a glimpse into the mind of this amazing man who has revolutionized how we cook today and tomorrow.'' -- Jose Andres

A Day at elBulli: An Insight into the Ideas, Methods and Creativity of Ferran Adria reveals for the first time the creative process, innovative philosophy and extraordinary techniques of the multi-award-winning restaurant, elBulli, and its legendary head chef, Ferran Adria.

Situated on a remote beach on the northeast coast of Spain, elBulli is famous for being the ultimate pilgrimage site for foodies, and a reservation that is nearly impossible to obtain. Each year elBulli is open for just six months, and receives more than 2 million requests for only 8,000 seats. Renowned for his spectacular ever-changing 30-course tasting menu, Adria's pioneering culinary techniques have been applauded - and imitated - by top chefs around the globe for the past decade, and he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of our time.

If you weren't one of the lucky few to get in this year (2008 reservations were booked a year in advance), you can now experience the restaurant like never before. This generously-illustrated 600-page ''day in the life'' features over 800 photographs, menus, recipes and diagrams, and presents a guided tour through a full working day at elBulli.

The book highlights 30 dishes which represent a full elBulli menu, and Adria shows you how he creates the restaurant's innovative cuisines. Sample recipes include Samphire Tempura with Saffron and Oyster Cream, Steamed Brioche with Rose-Scented Mozzarella, and Coulant/Souffle of Granadilla with Cardamom Toffee.

In April 2008, elBulli won the #1 Best Restaurant in the World, for the third year in a row at the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards.

About this title

About the Author

Ferran Adrią, who has been called "the Salvador Dali of the kitchen," has won global acclaim as one of the most creative and inventive culinary geniuses in the world. His restaurant elBulli has 3-Michelin stars and was ranked #1 for the past three years in a row by the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards. Situated on a remote beach on the Costa Brava of Spain, elBulli is famous for its ever-changing 30-course tasting menu and renowned for being the ultimate pilgrimage site for foodies. Each year elBulli is open for just six months, and receives more than 2 million requests for only 8,000 seats. Ferrįn Adrią began his famed culinary career washing dishes at a French restaurant in the town of Castelldefels, Spain. Here, Adrią familiarized himself with basic cooking methods as he applied a variety of culinary techniques, building his gastronomic repertoire. In 1984, at the age of 22, Adrią joined the kitchen staff of elBulli, and only 18 months later, he became head chef.

Reviews

An enormous undertaking, this monumental tome, complete with more than 1,000 photographs, chronicles one day at revolutionary eatery elBulli in northern Spain, arguably one of today's most influential restaurants. Adria, the culinary genius behind this success, along with restaurant manager Soler and brother and fellow chef Albert give the reader a firsthand look at day-to-day activities and the innovation for which elBulli is known. Lavish photographs are the main attraction in this work; text is sparse and offers only glimpses into activities. While there is an examination of the team's creative methods, most topics are only touched upon briefly, such as creative sessions, testing and utilizing a mental palate. Given the highly technical nature of the dishes served at elBulli, recipes (Pine Nut Marshmallows; Steamed Brioche with Rose-scented Mozzarella) are rare. A glance behind the scenes at a pivotal time and place in culinary evolution, this book will delight serious foodies, and its stunning package guarantees it will grace many a coffee table. (Oct.) --Publishers Weekly

In the world of culinary porn, this five-hundred-plus-page tome of photographs from the fabled avant-garde restaurant elBulli, in Spain, is curiously banal. Little of the chef Ferran Adri�s radical genius can be detected in the brochurelike text (�To produce a great wine you need the best grapes�) and the mostly prosaic images (sommeliers at their laptops, for example). But when the food arrives one feels a sense of wonder. Circles of dehydrated mango pur�e, daubed with a purplish black-olive emulsion, conjure miniature Rothkos; puffs of cotton candy, dusted with a freeze-dried passion-fruit powder, hang from spindly branches. Intrepid or technologically well-equipped readers may brave the recipes for such creations as liquorice-infusion-jelly lasagne and ignore the overserious eating instructions.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0714848832
• ISBN 13: 9780714848839
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 528