Ferran Adrià

1962 -

Ferran Adrià i Acosta[a] (born 14 May 1962) is a Spanish chef. He was the head chef of the El Bulli restaurant in Roses on the Costa Brava and is considered one of the best chefs in the world.[3] He has often collaborated with his brother, the renowned pastry chef Albert Adrià.

Ferran Adrià began his culinary career in 1980 during his stint as a dishwasher at the Hotel Playafels, in the town of Castelldefels. The chef de cuisine at this hotel taught him traditional Spanish cuisine. At 19 he was drafted into military service where he worked as a cook. In 1984, at the age of 22, Adrià joined the kitchen staff of elBulli as a line cook. Eighteen months later he became the head chef.

In 1994, Ferran Adrià and Juli Soler (his partner) sold 20% of their business to Miquel Horta (a Spanish millionaire and philanthropist and son of the founder of Nenuco) for 120 million pesetas. This event became a turning point for elBulli, the money was used to finance an expansion of the kitchen and the relationship with Horta opened the door to new clients, businessmen, and politicians who helped spread the word about the creative experimentation happening at the time in Cala Montjoi.[4]

Along with British chef Heston Blumenthal, Adrià is often associated with "molecular gastronomy", although like Blumenthal the Spanish chef does not consider his cuisine to be of this category.[5] Instead, he has referred to his cooking as deconstructivist.[6] He defines the term as 'Taking a dish that is well known and transforming all its ingredients, or part of them; then modifying the dish's texture, form and/or its temperature. Deconstructed, such a dish will preserve its essence... but its appearance will be radically different from the original's.'[7] His stated goal is to "provide unexpected contrasts of flavour, temperature and texture. Nothing is what it seems. The idea is to provoke, surprise and delight the diner."[8]

elBulli was only open for about six months of the year, from mid-June to mid-December. Adrià spent the remaining six months of the year perfecting recipes in the workshop "elBulliTaller" in Barcelona. The restaurant closed on 30 July 2011.[9] It reopened as a creativity center to foster innovation like his own and entirely new ideas in 2014.[10]

elBulli had 3 Michelin stars and was one of the best restaurants in the world. It received first place in the Restaurant Top 50 in 2002. Then in 2005, it ranked second. It was again awarded the first place in 2006, and retained this title in 2007, 2008 and 2009, making a record 5 times in the top spot. In 2010, after elBulli announced it would close for good the next season, the title was awarded to Noma of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Adrià is well known for creating "culinary foam." Adrià explored foams created without the addition of cream or egg white; foams are made of a flavoured liquid and an additive (such as lecithin), then aerated through a variety of methods, including whipping with an immersion blender or extrusion from a siphon bottle equipped with N2O cartridges. Further culinary processes (such as freeze-drying or freezing with liquid nitrogen) may be applied to foams as well. Using a single flavoured liquid allows the flavour of the final product to be less diluted and thus more intense.

Adrià is the author of several cookbooks including A Day at El Bulli, El Bulli 2003–2004 and Cocinar en Casa (Cooking at Home). With his assistant Daniel Picard, Adrià has made almonds into cheese and asparagus into bread with the help of natural ingredients.[11]

In autumn 2010, Adrià and José Andrés taught a culinary physics course, "Science and Cooking" at Harvard University.[12] In October 2010, Adrià announced an alliance with Telefónica.[13]. In March 2012 he announced a new project, LaBullipedia.[14] In a later interview he described the project as "A Western haute cuisine Wikipedia at the service of information but also creativity".[15]