Shifting focus - the Decade interview: Ferran Adrià

He joined elBulli on work experience in 1983 and went on to change the way we eat

Ferran Adrià is synonymous with elBulli, the world-famous, three Michelin-starred restaurant, situated in the small town of Roses, Catalonia, Spain, that he joined in 1983 on work experience and which has been under his command since 1987. With an ambitious approach to experimentation, Adrià has pushed the boundaries of cooking and pioneered a method he calls 'deconstruction' to create an exciting new world of haute cuisine. elBulli has topped the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list an impressive five times, but closed its doors as a restaurant this July; it will reopen transformed as a creative foundation in 2014.  

Adrià continues to lecture on culinary physics at Harvard University, and this October will see the publication of The Family Meal - the first book of home-cooking recipes by Adrià, containing 31 menus and 93 recipes for the simple, tasty dishes that the elBulli staff ate for dinner.  Phaidon.com caught up with Adrià to reflect on the last ten years and what the next decade holds.

 

Q: What were you doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago we were in an era when creativity was given return. We launched elBullitaller in Barcelona and much later on, we opened elBullicarmen, where all the bussiness is now centralised. We took away the possibility of eating à la carte and instead developed the idea of the tasting menu. We closed during lunch time. And in 2001 we started to write the General Catalogue [which revealed the collective knowledge, technology and philosophy at elBulli].

 

Q: What are you doing now?

We are at an important stage because we have just finished the last season of elBulli as it has been until now. The restaurant elBulli is now closed, and we will reopen in 2014 as a foundation. We are currently working on how the new space will be and what will take place in the Creativity Center. My book _The Family Meal _will be published by Phaidon in October and will be the first book of home-cooking recipes containing 31 menus and 93 recipes for the simple, tasty dishes that the elBulli staff ate for dinner.

 

Q: Where will you be in ten years' time?

I don't know - who knows? I hope to be at the Creativity Center, in this new stage elBulli is just beginning. All the team are very excited by it.