Ferran Adrià

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Ferran Adrià Acosta is a Catalan chef born 14 May 1962 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, is the famed head chef of El Bulli Restaurant in Roses on the Costa Brava.

Ferran Adrià began his culinary career in 1980 during his stint as a dishwasher at the Hotel Playafels in Catalonia, in the town of Castelldefels. The chef de cuisine at this hotel taught him about traditional Spanish cuisine. At 19 he was drafted into military service where he worked as a cook. In 1984, at the age of 22, Adrià joined the kitchen staff of the then-unknown El Bulli as a line cook. Eighteen months later, he became the head chef.

Along with British chef Heston Blumenthal, Adrià is often associated with "molecular gastronomy," although he does not consider his cuisine to be of this category. Molecular gastronomy melds science and technology with culinary practices and procedure, boldly experimenting with new technologies and unexpected textures and flavors. Adrià's stated goal is to "provide unexpected contrasts of flavor, temperature and texture. Nothing is what it seems. The idea is to provoke, surprise and delight the diner."^[1] This is also combined with a large dose of irony and a sense of humour making his dishes highly épatants (impressive). As he likes to say: "The ideal customer doesn't come to El Bulli to eat but to have an experience," an assertion widely mocked in Spain.^{[citation needed]}

El Bulli is only open from April to September. Adrià spends the other six months of the year perfecting recipes in his workshop, "El Taller," in Barcelona. He is famous for his thirty course gourmet menu.

He is best known for creating "culinary foam", which in his research to enhance flavour proscribes cream and egg and is only made of the main ingredient and "air" (in a whipped cream maker equipped with N₂O cartridges). Adrià's foam creations include foamed espresso, foamed mushroom and foamed beet.

Today he is considered one of the best chefs in the world and tops the European Restaurant Ranking.

El Bulli has 3 Michelin stars and is regarded as one of the best restaurants in the Western world. In 2005 it was ranked second in the Restaurant Top 50, and it attained the top spot in 2006, displacing The Fat Duck in England.

[edit] Publications

El Bulli 1983-1993 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià)
El Bulli: el sabor del Mediterráneo, 1993, ISBN 84-7596-415-X
Los secretos de El Bulli, 1997, ISBN 448710002
El Bulli 1994-1997 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià)
Cocinar en 10 minutos con Ferran Adrià, 1998, ISBN 84-605-7628-0
Celebrar el milenio con Arzak y Adrià (with Juan Mari Arzak), 1999, ISBN 84-8307-246-7
El Bulli 1998-2002 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià), Conran Octopus, 2003, ISBN 1-84091-346-0; Ecco, 2005, ISBN 0-06-081757-7
El Bulli 2003-2004 (with Juli Soler and Albert Adrià), Ecco, 2006, ISBN 0-06-114668-4