“Neither me nor my brother Albert liked to eat or cook. Ours is not an atypical case, but the following… I wanted to be a footballer, my idol was Johan Cruyff” (the Dutch footballer they called “The Golden Tulip”). adrià He is from Barça, a friend of Pep Guardiola and an admirer of Lionel Messi. Considered the best chef in the world —although he has been moving in another extra dimension for a while now— he was in Buenos Aires, together with his wife, Isabel Pérez Barceló —“Without her I would not be who I am, I would not exist…”— invited by Bodegas Zuccardi and in his role as ambassador for Telefónica, he was in charge of the “Connect knowledge” cycle. With passion and plenty of expertise, he developed a series of talks —also in Mendoza— where he exposed a portion, barely, of how much he cooks and chews in his mega company, The Bulli. What was that restaurant in Cala Montjoi, Girona, has become an emporium of knowledge, made up of the Bulli Foundation, the Bulli1846 Lab and the Bullipedia. “There we study, research and experiment to generate knowledge related to creativity and efficiency in innovation, both basic and applied to different areas of culture” says Adrià.
But the Catalan, who joined El Bulli to cook with his brother in 1997, has always had the obsession of rethinking and wondering ad infinitum about the gastronomic phenomenon. Although the Michelin Guide awarded him stars and the world applauded him for his innovative cuisine, he knew how to celebrate it with joy, but his concern to continue advancing was stronger. And after some years of maximum splendor, he made the unusual decision to close 6 months a year, “because without these breaks, it would have been impossible to maintain the level of creation. There was no time to consciously think about what we were doing,” he explains. On July 31, 2011 they lowered the blind on the subtraction, but the great conversion of it was launched. Now, while we listen to it, we warn that Bullimania will never stop. Because that going for more and better is Adrià’s vertebral drive, the one that makes him come here, go there, try, experiment, lose, win “and such”, as he himself says.
News: In his Master Class at the CCK, he addressed what creativity and innovation mean. Can you share it?
Ferran Adria: Creativity is the ability that humans have to create. Creating is an action by which we are going to do something new; This new thing is a gray point, subjective… we could talk for hours. Innovation is the action that introduces a creative change, new, in an external organization —the product— or internal, an SME, for example. Innovation is linked to success, especially in the world of large companies, where the discourse is different… At a small company level, you don’t have to go crazy to innovate, but you do have to be open to change.
News: Is creative talent a gift or an apprenticeship?
Adrià: It is an extraordinary ability to do something. Lionel Messi has that talent to play football. Neuroscience experts say that there is a genetic part and a training part. There has to be genes, because if it was just effort and passion, I would play as Lio! (laughs)
News: What happens to a creative cook if they reject their result, their dish?
Adria: Close. (Laughter) If he is not able to convince that the product is worth it, he closes. At El Bulli, at first, few people accepted what we were doing. We were able to hold out for a while until more people accepted. There was will to endure and also luck. Being in the right place and time.
News: There is a happy convergence between the arts, sciences and certain disciplines that synergize to create new results. Do a haute couture designer and a cook approach the creative process in an analogous way, mutatis mutandis?
Adria: I would have to study more so as not to frivolize my answer. But there are differences. The cooks work with live products, our tests are mostly ephemeral, with a photographic record and a recipe. We share the seasons, if we take into account the products from the garden and such. With the price of a haute couture dress there is a big difference. Creativity is not paid on a plate. I do not charge you a plus for something that only you eat in the world. Each activity, each profession, has its way of creating. This is what is fascinating.
News: Someone said that the kitchen was the most ephemeral of arts, not a museum. Is it frustrating for the creator?
Adria: It is what it is! (Laughter) It cannot be changed. In 50 years who knows…
News: Creativity in the kitchen was defined by Jacques Maximin as “Do not copy”.
Adria: It is something very obvious but very important. If you are creative you must be honest with yourself. And this has a brutal force, which leads to an ethic in creation. And I think there isn’t, in 95% of cases.
News: From ethics I lead him to the concept of τέχνη or tekné that for Aristotle implied knowledge to transform the natural into the artificial. Would the kitchen be tekné?
Adria: When cooking is mentioned in old books, it is considered a craft, not within the fine arts. The concept of art as revelation, provocation is new. You don’t cook to provoke, to reflect; just to eat well. Few people include emotions in a gastronomic experience. This was a genuine contribution from El Bulli and few restaurants have achieved it.
In 2003, he was on the cover and fourteen interior pages of the Sunday supplement of The New York Times. “The ‘New York Times’ thing changed my life, especially because of the title, in which they said that Spain was the new France. That was a before and after, incredible; without a doubt, the most important event of my career, ”she recalls. But he adds: “I did not intend to create a dispute, but I understand the discomfort that there was at that time in France. For 400 years they had a monopoly and taught us gastronomy. And that there is a gentleman – he could have had any nationality – who presented something unexpected for them, it was a shock ”
News: What factors came together for El Bulli to install a new paradigm?
Adria: One, because there are several, is the universalization of creativity in the kitchen. We consciously thought about cooking and told young people, you can do it. In short, think before you cook.
News: Was molecular cuisine an axis of the new paradigm?
Adria: Look, there was a lot of talk about this kitchen. At first, in Europe, it was taken derogatorily, as a complex socio-political action, like chemical cooking, bad. They manipulated reality and the street was not going to be in favor of food associated with test tubes and such. Since we were unaware, we had a hard time defending ourselves. This controversy would last a second today. Chemistry is the science that studies the composition of the elements; taken to the kitchen, of the products. And we study, such that this marked the way of working of the chefs who began to relate to science. That scientific attitude was incorporated into top chefs and their teams. Then there was a stage between 1998 and 2006 in which there was a series of gelling, thickening and such products that allowed unthinkable textures to be created. But luckily this is over.
News: He created a foundation after the closure of El Bulli.
Adria: The foundation has missions. Safeguard the restaurant’s legacy, create quality content with Bullipedia and share our innovation experience, through dissemination with Telefónica and reflection with different experts, philosophers, scientists. We publish 25 books that are doctoral theses. We created the first catalog of the history of cooking, numbering our recipes by year. And we decided to match the last one, with something emotional. We searched for dates on the Internet and found that Auguste Escoffier, the great French cook, was born in 1846. Hence the Bulli1846. My respect for French cuisine is demonstrated here.
News: What does the SAPIENS methodology consist of?
Adria: It is the one that connects the information and converts it into knowledge, through five methods. The semantic lexicon —what things are—; the comparative —what do I compare them with—; the classifier —how I order—; and systemic, which is the most complex, which is seeing the world as a system, made up of many systems. And the historical.
News: Do you want Messi to return to Barça?
Adria: (Smiles) I want him back. She arrived at 9 and left at 33; she has been on a soccer team for 24 years. All Barcelona fans were very sad when he left. We have learned that there was no money to pay him what he was promised. But today, the vice president of Barça said that he is in contact with his father. If he comes back it will be crazy. I know that for you Lio is Argentine. For us he is from Barça! We are super proud that they have won the World Cup and in Catalonia we take to the streets to celebrate.
News: Three years after the failed independence movement of Catalonia, what phase are you in today?
adrià: The furor has been deflated. But you have to have respect for the motion and it is a very emotional issue for many Catalans. A solution will have to be found.
