Oh what a night!

So I had a very exciting last night in Canada last week. I had the opportunity to see Ferran Adriá interviewed in promotion of his new book A day at elBulli. He was one cool cat, de-bunking the term molecular gastronomy by explaining that scientists are involved in all manner of food production and preparation today. Whether it is the engineering of all-purpose flour we bake with at home to the construction of a frying pan for the simple frying of an egg. Ferran pointed out that all cooking is technically molecular.

He took only one question from the audience but it resulted in an interesting answer; a young man asked if he started his far-out creations with the creative idea and then brought it to reality or if he started with a normal dish and then made it creative. He had a bit of a philosophic answer and my heart sank when he said (I’m not kidding) “there is no such thing as truth, everyone has there own truth…” but I understood the context he meant it in, which was that of flavor preference (we’re talking aesthetics not ethics). He went on to say he thought anyone whose job is solely to be creative is of little value, “creative directors” for example can be deemed unnecessary. He closed by explaining that last point with this thought “if one of my creative team members does not come in, life goes on, if the dish washer does not show up, everything stops.”

We followed up the interview and book signing with a reception and dinner at Colborne Lane. The chef at Colborne Lane did a stage at el Bulli and his cuisine shows the influence of Ferran. Dehydrated, frozen, powdered, crystallized and liquefied foods were never presented so well. One of the coolest presentations is the “iced coffee;” a frozen white “ice cube” of white chocolate with a molten mocha center that disappears in your mouth as soon as you eat it! The foie gras bombs were also amazing, like a soft and savory, melt-in-your-mouth lollipop. Calamari extruded and fried like Mexican churros were a thought provoking munchie. Probably one of my favorites was a perfectly cooked olive crusted lamb chop –wow!

So I owe a big thank you to John and Nicola. They turned me on to the event and provided great conversation at dinner. John and I have been trading chef-dialogue for quite some time. He recently turned me on to this website. He is a huge fan of the molecular culinary movement as am I. His Pacojet Appreciation Society should give you some good insight to this particular niche of our industry. Thanks again John for thinking of me! I will catch you on the next trip through Toronto.