Customer Reviews

Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food

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I have been intensely interested in avant garde cuisine since I first discovered it around 2004. Ferran's name came up because he was an early pioneer and shared recipes, techniques, and technical information freely. I wanted to know more about Ferran's thought process and how he came up with his ideas. This book seemed to promise that.

It doesn't. In fact, I'm left scratching my head and wondering what just happened. To start with, the layout of the book is bizarre. The chapters had no relation to each other and there was no flow from one to the next. It jumps all over the place, from modern day back to Ferran's childhood, to El Bulli's backstory, to a lengthy interview with one of Ferran's most belligerent opponents. Many times it was a challenge trying to figure out what on Earth is going on.

I did eventually glean some useful information, mostly to do with what Ferran will be doing with elBulli after the restaurant closes in July 2011. And it was interesting learning the backstory to El Bulli and finding out more about how Ferran rose to his position. It is not, though, much of a biography of Ferran himself.

Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food

Excerpted from my article on Ferran Adrià in the October issue of Food Arts magazine.

"Colman Andrews first began thinking about writing a book about Ferran Adrià at the historic Culinary Institute at Greystone's "Spain and the World Table," conference in November, 2006. At that conference there was a particular poignant moment that was the climax of what Andrew's calls "a hugely ambitious, highly successful . . . program," when The French Laundry's Thomas Keller introduced Ferran Adríà to tumultuous applause. Coming after the 2003 The New York Times Sunday Magazine article, Arthur Lubow article that posed the question, "Is Spain the New France?", the French-trained, Francophile Keller's introduction was something very much like the passing of the torch to Spain and to Adrià, who for nearly a decade now has been called "the world's greatest chef" and his restaurant, elbulli, "the world's greatest restaurant." That moment at the CIA-Greystone well may have been the greatest event in Spain's long culinary history.

Andrews-with the help of elBulli (the official name of the restaurant) alumni, Ferran Adrià confidant and chef-restaurateur José Andrés "kept after" Ferran for nearly a year. At one point, Andrés told Andrews, "If he thinks this is my idea or your idea, he will maybe not be so eager to say yes. He has to think it is his idea." They both persisted until Ferran told Andrews, "the next time you are Barcelona, we'll talk." Andrews quickly booked a flight to Barcelona, where he long felt at home since he spent a lot of time there two decades ago writing his seminal book on the food of Catalunya, Catalan Cuisine: Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret (Atheneum, 1988).

Andrews managed to pin Ferran down over dinner at Inopia, Ferran's brother Albert's happening tapas bar (he just sold it; see accompanying article). At the end of a meal that featured traditional Spanish tapas-white asparagus , five kinds of olives, jamón Ibérico from Salamanca, esquiexada (Catalan shredded raw salt cod salad), fried artichokes, fried boquerones (anchovies), pa amb tomaquet (Catalan grilled bred rubbed with tomato and garlic) and small grilled shrimp, washed down with a crisp Catalan white wine, Andrews asks himself about whether he had the green light to do this book, "Was this (Ferran's) capitulation?"

All those who needed a book on Ferran-I am one of them, even though I have known him for nearly fifteen years-that tells you everything you need to know, but were always afraid to ask, about the man, his restaurant, his dimension-bursting food, his partner Juli Soler and the truth and mythology that surrounds elBulli, this fine, eminently readable treatment is a blessing. Colman Andrews has done a brilliant job with this nearly 300-page book, despite what the misguided review in The New York Times a week ago claimed.

Readers will come away from Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food with an infinitely greater understanding of the "world's greatest chef," who indeed reinvented (and continues to reinvent) food in the 21st Century. The only negative in the American edition is that there are no photographs; the European edition apparently has them."

When it was published first, by Phaidon, [ASIN:0714859052 Reinventing Food, Ferran Adria: The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat] it was embellished with many photos. I think they add a couple of stars to my two, and are worth any extra outlay, if, like me, you regard Ferran Adria as a master miracle worker. And the photos are not just mercantile bulk-making as in [ASIN:0714859036 Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine], but genuine additions to and reflections on the text. (Unlike the vegetable 'portraits' in the Noma - what were they thinking of? I can lay three asparagus spears on a plate, stare at them, and where will it get me?)

As for the text, it too is illuminating. Despite some other reviewers of either edition, it is biography, not hagiography, though I have been known to refer to the subject as Saint Ferran as I drool over the earlier elBulli books. Andrews is an acolyte maybe, but genuinely concerned it seems to me to get across the detail of the development of Ferran's art and expertise. Better that than a snitchy fault-finder [naming no names].

Colman Andrews is clearly too close and too friendly with the subject of his book; he comes across as an apologist for Adria whenever Adria's actions deserve questioning. He's uncritical, and fails to ask any truly interesting, rigorous or challenging questions. Amusingly, he even seems to need to attack anyone who's dared attack his friend Ferran.

Interestingly, when he lists the menue of his second-to-last meal at elBulli, Andrews mentions quite a few dishes that he does not like... yet he never seems to take that to the next step and ask whether Adria's experimentation and focus on science has gone too far.

Two bizarre episodes: when Adria makes a sketch while dining with Andrews, Adria then signs the "piece" and gives it to Andrews. Gag me with a spoon. Really?

There's no denying Adria's accomplishments and genius, but this book is begging for a better author.

The majority of my disappointment lies with the author on this one. The writing style did not keep my attention, and about 1/8 of the book actually delves into Ferrans mind set in regards to ideas and conceptualizing food.

As a chef, I was hoping it would of touched more about his thought processes and technique development. All in all a waste of time reading this unfortunately.