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Ferran Adrià Kicks Off Harvard Seminar, Calls New Culinary Center ‘Crazy’

Andres (left) served as translator for Adria (right).
Andres (left) served as translator for Adria (right).

Acclaimed Catalan chef and culinary magician Ferran Adrià just started his first term as Harvard professor, along with fellow adjunct and translator José Andrés. In this video of their first Culinary Physics seminar — from writer Ike DeLorenzo who’s attending and reporting on the class — Adria discusses his upcoming Basque Culinary Centre, which he calls “a crazy project,” but which will hopefully be “keeping cooking in the evolution, evolution forward.” (Thank you to José for that translation.) The big question on everyone’s mind remains: Will there be free eats in this class?

As Grub Street and the whole foodie universe have noted previously, El Bulli will shutter in 2012 while Adria focuses on the new center and refreshes himself creatively via his new think tank. In 2014, as he told Vanity Fair in the new issue, El Bulli will reopen itself as a private think tank where only chefs, journalists, and a few invited guests are allowed. “At the end of the day our work will be posted on the Internet… It will not be a restaurant. No Michelin, no customers, no pressure. Every year will be different.”

He says the new center is the next logical stage in the evolution of El Bulli, after he previously formed a studio/laboratory in Barcelona called the Taller where he and his team would create dishes during the six months a year when the restaurant was closed. He clearly seems more interested in the art and science of food than he is in dealing with pesky diners…



Science and cooking [Boston Globe]
Earlier: El Bulli Without the Bull [Grub Street]
It Was Delicious While It Lasted [Vanity Fair]
Go to Culinary School With Ferran Adrià [Grub Street]
Ferran Adrià and Dan Barber Will Teach ‘Culinary Physics’ at Harvard [Grub Street]
Is Molecular Gastronomy Here to Stay? [Grub Street]

Ferran Adrià Kicks Off Harvard Seminar, Calls New Culinary Center