Of all people Ferran Adria tells fellow Spanish chefs to get back to basics
IN a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Spain’s top chef says the years of excess in cooking must come to an end.
Ferran Adria – famed for his experimental dishes and known internationally for his use of foams and froths – has criticised recent trends for extravagant cooking and called for a return to simpler, plainer dishes.
In a departure from his trademark excesses, Adria lambasted the overuse of foam in dishes across Spain claiming his restaurant now only used it in one or two meals a year.
Addressing an audience at the Madrid Fusion food conference the Catalan blamed the focus on such foods for causing a laughable situation.
He added there were nowadays more food conferences than there are chefs.
Each year his restaurant 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.
He has even been named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of our time.
Excesses
However he now predicts that tough economic times will revolutionise the industry and put a stop to excesses in the kitchen.
He predicts that only the most talented and innovative chefs will survive and a very different future awaits them.
Restaurants will have to reinvent themselves to become more accessible in order to survive the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
Gone are the days of champagne-infused caviar and bacon and egg flavoured ice cream, then!
