“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J. R. R. Tolkien
Incredible food is one of the best parts about visiting NYC. It is funny being a tourist in a city that you grew up in which is now completely different. I feel it most with restaurants. I do not know where the best places to eat are and have to…
On December 19, Albert Adria (of Tickets and Enigma in Barcelona) will be cooking at Jose Andres' Minibar in Washington D.C.-- a one night only affair. Adria, and older brother Ferran, are also part of Andres' first venture in New York, Mercado Little Spain, which will open its doors on March 2019.
Photos from this winter’s Push Project (super behind on posting), an amazing and delicious collaboration between Albert Adria (of the now-closed El Bulli) and Paco Mendez of Hoja Santa in Barcelona and Alex Stupak of Empellon Cocina. It featured a great mix of Mexican and Spanish food, traditional and super-modern, and tons of booze (let’s just say we started and ended with shots of mezcal). Such…
Coot It Raw - The Shaping of Our Alberta Culinary Frontier
Coot It Raw – The Shaping of Our Alberta Culinary Frontier
When I heard about Cook It Raw last year, it was in a brief article that I had read about the event that was taking place on the Yucatán Peninsula. I considered how such a gathering of world class chefs in one location, paying homage to the culture and land, could be summed up in one word; Extraordinary. I didn’t know then that a couple of months later during Calgary’s Big Taste event, I would be…
¿Qué se esconde tras el conocimiento culinario de Albert Adrià? Amante de la discrección, ya lidera varios proyectos gastronómicos transgresores, que cambian la forma en que vivimos la experiencia y el sabor en los restaurantes. Unto y Trueday Films se embarcan en la aventura de analizar qué se esconde tras los fogones cuando hablamos de Albert Adrià. ¿Te atreves a descubrirlo?
Albert Adrià's Remarkable Rise to the TopBen Mervis
As a way to give additional context to the recently released video of Albert Adrià at this year's MAD, here's an exploration of the chef's career, from the early days at elBulli to the empire of daring restaurants he's been building in Barcelona over the past five years:
In 1984 Gines Adrià, frustrated by his young son’s apathy in school, gave to him an ultimatum: “Albert, if you don’t study, work.” Albert, aged 15, took the latter option and joined his older brother Ferran in the kitchen of elBulli, on Spain’s Costa Brava. Albert arrived at the restaurant without any formal training. Over the next two decades, would go from performing the most menial tasks to establishing himself as the greatest pastry chef in the world.
Albert gives Anthony Bourdain a tour of elBulli's workshop
While his brother Ferran was always the public face of elBulli, Albert won himself considerable praise during his time at the restaurant and developed a cultish group of admirers within the restaurant industry. His desserts were crucial in maintaining the restaurant’s reputation as one of the most forward-thinking places to eat in the world. His brother Ferran has hailed him as “without a doubt the most complete cook working in the world today.”
Albert’s love for dessert seems to derive from the expansive, unrestricted nature of the work: “With pastries I can create whatever I want—it’s an open book. There’s something very technical about it. If I mess up, it can be tasted.” He found much of his inspiration from brief moments spent in nature; one of his most famous desserts came from a mid-winter experience, when he noticed how the leaves had changed color, simultaneously changing the color of the ground. He transformed this moment into a cherry sorbet with salted honey yogurt, frozen chocolate powder, and spice bread. Among his other creations was an eggplant sorbet confit with yogurt and balsamic caramel, and cake made with bacon, pine nuts and Pedro Ximénez croquant.
Albert Adrià: "Be Afraid" from madfeed.co on Vimeo.
In 1997, Albert moved out of elBulli’s kitchen and into its research lab, the taller, where the main members of the kitchen team would spend half of each year working to develop an entirely new menu for the restaurant. Albert was the head of innovation.
Noted pastry chef Alex Stupak (who now owns the Empellon restaurants in New York) credits Albert with inspiring his career: “His book Los Postres de elBulli changed my life,” says Stupak. “Discovering flavors and combining them is important, but his work added another axis of thought for me—it was about physical manipulation of the ingredients. Chefs have an arsenal of classic techniques that they learn from. Albert added to the body of this knowledge in a permanent way.”
Albert’s other publication, Natura, is a revolutionary cookbook in which all the desserts resemble landscapes. A sample pastry resembling a tree in roots features almond streusel, albarizas almonds and yogurt, coconut sorbet, ice cream coconut powder, salted honey yogurt, and lemon custard.
Since leaving elBulli in 2008, Albert has become one of the world’s most successful chef/auteur/entrepreneurs, developing new concepts and interpreting different cuisines—all within Barcelona’s theater district. His first Barcelona restaurant was a very well received though short-lived tapas bar called Inopia. In January 2011, he opened 41 Degrees, a cocktail bar with a sleek, jet-black interior that featured elBulli style snacks, including frozen sliced Parmesan, and mango slices with Tagetes flowers. 41 Degrees evolved and became a 16-seat space where diners enjoyed a 45-course feast. That space is now closed, and Albert will turn it into a new venture called Enigma.
Albert’s third and perhaps most famous restaurant, the large, playful, and bustling tapas bar Tickets, was inspired by his desire to find a balance between tradition and innovation: “I was sick of the eternal discussion between tradition and modernity. I began to ask myself if it were possible to find a model in which the two could co-exist.” With a circus-inspired interior, Tickets offers dishes like “oyster with a pearl” (the pearl is made of a seaweed and lemon juice) and "air baguettes" made from crunchy, puffy pizza dough that’s filled with Manchego foam.
The Tickets manchego bites
Albert’s efforts to improve the neighborhood through food have been successful and swift. According to the noted Spanish chef Juan Mari Arzak, “If anyone can transform an entire neighborhood into a gigantic restaurant, it is Albert Adrià…He’s always been a lively, quick-witted and extremely inventive individual. There aren’t many chefs that can match his creativity.”
Albert is constantly working on new projects: in 2013, he opened a Peruvian-Japanese restaurant called Pakta, and since then, he has opened the classic vermouth bar Bodega 1900 and the Mexican restaurants Hoja Santa and Niño Viejo. It’s almost impossible to keep up with his growing stable of restaurants.
Wrap filled with pork crackling, leek, and chipotle ash at Hoja Santa
When asked about how he maintains his creative spirit, Albert has said, “It’s not the same as making a book, where you finish the book, you’re happy, and you’re done. No.” He uses his fear of failure to motivate himself: “When you overcome your fear and transform it into a creative element, you get your dreams."
