Interview With Ferran Adria: Spain’s Super Chef

Travel Blog  •  David Farley  •  03.17.09 | 9:04 AM ET

REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Superlatives and Spanish chef Ferran Adria seem to make the perfect pairing. His restaurant, El Bulli, located north of Barcelona, is often referred to by foodies, travelers and restaurant critics as a culinary heaven. The best restaurant in the world. And, as a result, nabbing a reservation is like winning the lottery: 100,000 requests for reservations per year come in. If you’re lucky enough to get one, you arrive in Spain hungry.

Adria spends six months out of the year in his Barcelona workshop, creating a menu (some have dubbed it “molecular gastronomy”) that is so avant-garde that it’s hard to find anything else like it (unless, of course, a chef is copying Adria—and many are).

I recently exchanged emails with Chef Adria and asked about his interest in travel—and I tried to be extra nice in the hope he’d grant me one of those impossible-to-get reservations.

World Hum: Spain seems to be the gastronomic center of the world right now. How much has Spain’s recent dominance in cooking and cuisine helped El Bulli and inspired you?

Ferran Adria: That’s up to others to decide ... what we’ve tried to do is help with our work, when we’re creating in the workshop in Barcelona at no point do we think about whether what we’re doing is going to influence or not.

If you opened a restaurant in a different country besides Spain, where would it be?

I don’t intend to open restaurants, but if I were going to, it would be hard for me to choose one place, now that I’ve had the opportunity to travel a lot and there are incredible spaces.

Speaking of travel, where did you go on your last vacation?

Japan, the U.S., Brazil and the Amazon, but “vacation” is a manner of speech, because on all the trips, we did the occasional conference.

Where in the world would you travel for a meal?

Many places. I can’t name one space concretely since I really like to eat and I have many places I’d like to return to and others to discover.

How would you improve airline food?

It’s difficult; an airplane isn’t designed according to what kind of food will be served; it has to be prepared in advance, you have to heat everything at once, it has to spend many hours in the service trays ... it’s difficult, but I suppose that cooking food with less manipulation, more natural ingredients would be an improvement.

And, finally, can I get a reservation at El Bulli? Please, please, pretty please?!

You have to send an email to el Bulli and have a little luck.

Special thanks to Abbie Kozolchyk and Laura Lincks for translation help.

Tags: Airworld, Food, Europe, Spain, Barcelona, News and Briefs


1 Comment for Interview With Ferran Adria: Spain’s Super Chef

Migration Mark 03.18.09 | 12:09 AM ET

Travel and food, surely two of the world’s greatest activities.  I would love to secure a reservation at el Bulli as well!

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