39
“Créer, signife ne pas co-
pier” disait Jacques Maxi-
min. C’est ce slogan qui, depuis
toujours, détermine le quotidien de
Ferran Adrià et de son équipe. Le
flm “El Bulli – Cooking in Progress“
El Bully restaurant has now closed
and has been converted into elBul-
lifoundation.
„We created a monster and now it
was time to tame it“, said Adrià. On
the last Saturday in July the famous
gourmet restaurant elBulli opened
its doors to invited guests for the last
time. Adrià pulled out all the stops
for his word-famous molecular gas-
tronomy.With 60 or 70 employees
he prepared a 50 course menu for
friends, family members and collea-
gues. According to the restaurant,
among the guests were the best
chefs in the world: René Redzepi
from Denmark, Joan Roca and An-
doni Luis Aduriz from Spain as well
as the italian Massimo Bottura.
documente sa recherche minutieu-
sement : des expériences initiales,
jusqu’à la première du plat abou-
ti. Mais en route il n’est pas rare
que l’un ou l’autre des ingrédients
soient étudiés et utilisés d’une toute
autre manière qu’au départ. Que
pourrait-on faire sortir de complète-
ment nouveau d’une patate douce
? Goût et texture sont analysés de
façon systématique : faire cuire, fai-
re revenir, frire, cuisson à la vapeur,
mise sous vide, transformation en
sphère, lyophilisation. Ensuite on
goûte, on laisse venir les idées, on
discute et on note consciencieuse-
ment tous les résultats, qu’ils soient
bons ou mauvais – l’ordinateur por-
table toujours à côté des cassero-
les. Faire de la recherche signife
regarder de très près et compren-
dre les bases. Cela veut dire travai-
ller – parfois jusqu’à l’épuisement.
Les créations tombent rarement du
ciel. Elles naissent grâce au mélan-
ge entre les résultats dus au hasard
et d’autres obtenus exprès et des
expériences nouvelles.
Bulli – Cooking in Progress“ is the
close observation of that quest –
from initial experimentation to the
premiere of the fnished dish. In the
course of that process, however,
many an ingredient is examined
in a totally new way. What no-
vel product can one derive from
the sweet potato? Taste and tex-
ture are systematically analyzed:
by boiling, roasting, frying, stea-
ming – vacuumizing, spherifying,
freeze-drying – and then, tasting.
Ideas emerge, are discussed and,
fnally, all the results, whether good
or bad, are thoroughly documen-
ted – on a laptop beside the coo-
king spoon. After all, research
means to examine closely, with
an understanding of fundamental
principles. And research means
work, sometimes until exhausti-
on. Ideas usually don‘t fall from
the sky, they evolve in the diffuse
realm between the intentional and
the accidental, experience and the
unfamiliar.