clear rants: What Grant Achatz Saw at El Bulli

What Grant Achatz Saw at El Bulli

Grant Achatz, the chef at Alinea in Chicago reflects back on his first time eating and cooking at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli.

Chef Keller looked down at the magazine and spoke softly: Read this tonight when you go home. His food really sounds interesting, and right up your alley. I think you should go stage there this summer….I will arrange it for you.

When the dishes started to come I was disoriented, surprised, amazed…blown away and to my dismay, blind to what was happening. Trout roe arrived, encased in a thin- perfect tempura batter. I shot Wylie a skeptical glance and he immediately returned it. We bit into the gumball-size taste….there was no apparent binder holding the eggs together, and the eggs were still cold, uncooked! How did they hold the eggs together and then dip them in a batter without dispersing them into hundreds of pieces? And how are the eggs not totally cooked? This is cool… A small bowl arrived: Ah, polenta with olive oil, I thought. See, this food isn’t that out there. But as soon as the spoon entered my mouth an explosion of yellow corn flavor burst, and then all the texture associated with polenta vanished. I calmly laid my spoon down on the edge of the bowl after one bite–astonished. What the hell is going on back there, I thought. I know cooking, but this is the stuff of magic. And on it went…..pea soup that changed temperature as I ate it; ravioli made from cuttlefish instead of pasta that burst with a liquid coconut filling when you closed your mouth; tea that came in the form of a mound bubbles, immediately dissolving on the palate; braised rabbit with hot apple gelatin… Wait, how is this possible—gelatin can’t be hot!

This is a great read. It blew my mind.