What goes on behind the scenes at elBulli? Elected best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine an unprecedented five times, elBulli is where chef Ferran Adrià's remarkable cuisine comes to life--with dragon cocktails that make the drinker breathe smoke and caviar made from tiny spheres of olive oil. elBulli is also the object of culinary pilgrimage--millions clamor every year for a reservation at one of its tables. Yet few people know that, behind each of the thirtyor more courses that make up a meal at elBulli, a small army of stagiaires--apprentice chefs--labor at the precise, exhausting work of executing Adrià's astonishing vision. In The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's elBulli, Lisa Abend explores the remarkable system that Adrià uses to run his restaurant and, in the process, train the next generation of culinary stars. Granted more access to Adrià and the elBulli kitchen than any other writer in the restaurant's history, Abend follows thirty-five young men and women as they struggle to master the cutting-edge techniques, grueling hours, furious creativity, and interpersonal tensions that come with working at this celebrated institution. Her lively narrative captures a great cast, including a young Korean cook who camps on the doorstep of elBulli until he is allowed to work in the kitchen; an ambitious chef from one of Switzerland's top restaurants struggling to create his own artistic vision of cuisine; and an American couple whose relationship may not withstand the unique pressures of the restaurant. What emerges is an irresistible tale of aspiring young talents caught, for good or ill, in the opportunity of a lifetime.Taken together, their stories form a portrait of the international team that helps make a meal at elBulli so memorable. They also reveal a Ferran Adrià few ever see, one who is not only a genius chef and artist but also a boss, teacher, taskmaster, businessman, and sometimes- flawed human being. Today, food has become the focus of unprecedented attention, and The Sorcerer's Apprentices also explores the strange evolution--in less than two decades--of a once-maligned profession into a source of celebrity.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
For years, chef Adrià's creative and enigmatic culinary genius at his restaurant el Bulli drew not only the attention of the world's top chefs and food critics but also of aspiring culinary artists looking to apprentice there. Food writer Colman Andrews has recently written a biography of Adrià (Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food), and now New York Time's Spain correspondent Abend offers an intimate glimpse of life as a stagiaire—a cook who agrees to work for almost nothing for a season as one of Adrià's apprentices. Weaving the history of the restaurant and Adrià's own story with the threads of the 35 stagiaires who apprenticed at el Bulli from June to December 2009, she captures the intense desire to learn and to please, the demanding pace of the work, and the anxiety over success and failure that drives these young chefs. Some of the stagiaires, unwilling to submit to the ego-crunching drudgery of the work, leave early in the season; others, worried constantly about living up to the demands of the position, settle into a rhythm that carries them through the mundane details of preparing meals and propels them to a new level of culinary skill and inventiveness. Abend's sometimes lively, often plodding narrative provides another dimension to the culinary legend that is el Bulli. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review
Although foodies will surely love this book, Abend's gift for storytelling will leave most readers deeply satisfied. Highly recommended, especially in the wake of the mixed reception of Colman Andrews's recent Ferran.
--Library Journal
In the history of writing about restaurants, there have been few books displaying more sensitivity, insight, sympathy, and wisdom about the strange life--half pure art, half pure lackey--of the modern cook.
--Adam Gopnik
"Over the course of the last 25 years, Ferran AdriÀ has become both icon and iconoclast, an international bellwether for the future of food. In The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Lisa Abend gives us an illuminating new look at the most influential chef of our time through the kaleidoscopic lens of his thirty-five stagiaires. An accomplished journalist and agile storyteller, Abend immerses herself in the heat, the anxiety, and the ingenuity of this pressurized little world, bringing the characters—and the kitchen—to life. It's a fascinating glimpse into a culinary rite of passage, and the incomparable genius behind it."
--Library Journal
In the history of writing about restaurants, there have been few books displaying more sensitivity, insight, sympathy, and wisdom about the strange life--half pure art, half pure lackey--of the modern cook.
--Adam Gopnik
"Over the course of the last 25 years, Ferran AdriÀ has become both icon and iconoclast, an international bellwether for the future of food. In The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Lisa Abend gives us an illuminating new look at the most influential chef of our time through the kaleidoscopic lens of his thirty-five stagiaires. An accomplished journalist and agile storyteller, Abend immerses herself in the heat, the anxiety, and the ingenuity of this pressurized little world, bringing the characters—and the kitchen—to life. It's a fascinating glimpse into a culinary rite of passage, and the incomparable genius behind it."
--Dan Barber, Executive Chef and Co-owner of Blue Hill Farm
"The Sorcerer's Apprentices is a fascinating, well-reported, and dramatic account of life behind the lines at the world's most renowned restaurant, elBulli. Unimpeded by the language barrier that has prevented English-speaking journalists from conveying a full, clear picture of Ferran AdriÀ, Abend gives a sense of what his extraordinary, ground-breaking kitchen is actually like on the inside, from the vantage of the cooks. This is a worthy addition to the literature of the professional kitchen and a pleasure to read."
--Michael Ruhlman, author of Ratio and The Making of a Chef
“Part Dali, part Einstein, part modern-day Escoffier--superchef Ferran Adria of elBulli is one of the greatest creative minds of our time. Now Lisa Abend reveals what it's like to actually work in this genius's kitchen. Her formidable reportage, astute cultural observations, and keen eye for detail have produced a fascinating chronicle of the life-changing adventure undertaken by elBulli's lucky band of kitchen apprentices.”
--Anya von Bremzen, author of The New Spanish Table
"The author provides countless descriptions of an undeniably dazzling creative process and of foods that, even on paper, have the power to delight and amuse.
A gastronomical feast and a rare chance for gourmet enthusiasts to witness the creative process behind some of the world’s most innovative cuisine." --Kirkus
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By manhattan
Format:Hardcover
Lisa Abend is a fantastic writer who did an amazing job in capturing the aspirations and training of the stagiaires behind elBulli. Starting the book with elaborations of kitchen lingo like "quemo" and "oído", the author immediately hooks the reader into behind-the-scene in chef Ferran Adrià's kitchen. She described how each stagiaire came to become a stagiaire at elBulli with a journalistic understanding of their background and she went on to make each character alive in the reader's eyes. Fabulous read.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As I read into the book, I couldn't wait to see how stagiaires who were followed in the "plot" would end up at ElBulli, in their culinary as well as personal lives, and how they would fare beyond their apprenticeships. This is a book "non-foodies" as well as "foodies".Thoroughly enjoyable reading.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By LD
Format:Hardcover
This book is on Entertainment Weekly's "Must List" this week, and I can't agree more! I haven't finished it yet, but already, I don't want it to end. Abend really brings it all to life.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice insight into ElBulli
This book could have been a lot better, if it wasn't filled with irrelevant and repetitive information. Near the end I really had to oblige myself to complete it. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Douglas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid behind the scenes story telling
Lisa Abend has given us the narrative of a year in what has been called the greatest restaurant in the world. Read more
Published 16 months ago by H. Laack
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intimate portrait of el bulli
I enjoy the book. It gives an intimte portrait of El bulli and all the creative people behind it. Their challenge, their hard work, their passion, ambitions, and their... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Fifi
3.0 out of 5 stars
Underdeveloped & repetitive.
I didn't enjoy this book much past the small insight into the kitchen of El'Bulli. The writing drags on and on about the same subjects. Read more
Published 19 months ago by siekret
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book!!!
This is a great book, I did not want it to end, and also motivated me to do more cooking and see ingredients in new ways.
Published 21 months ago by Scott Richardson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful
Can we learn to be creative by sitting at the feet of a great artist? That is the central question Lisa Abend addresses as she follows 37 "stagiaires" (apprentices) through a... Read more
Published 21 months ago by BG
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book that gives an honest look behind the curtain
This is a great book that really gives a look at what happens on a daily basis at the most famous restaurant in the world. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Jackson St.
5.0 out of 5 stars
el Bulli Restaurant - Spain
elBulli was elected the "Best Restaurant in the World" and reservations are made a year in advance. This is an excellent look at what goes on behind the scenes. Read more
Published on April 28, 2011 by Gary Anderson
3.0 out of 5 stars
I expected figs, but got raisins
I don't want to sound contrary, but this book and its writer, Lisa Abend, left me, if not cold, at least chilly. Read more
Published on April 17, 2011 by B. Shutes
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