杏吧原创

Ferran Adri脿 is no stranger to experimentation. As head chef and co-owner of the world鈥檚 most avant-garde and exalted restaurant 鈥� elBulli on Spain鈥檚 Costa Brava 鈥� he is constantly trying to push the boundaries of his cooking, so far pioneering the use of foams, flavour-filled spheres and liquid nitrogen.

Adri脿 says that elBulli is 鈥渘ot a restaurant鈥� 鈥� I guess you could see it as a cross between a research lab and an edible art installation. Now Adri脿 has taken a further step towards the science world by striking up a collaboration with scientists from Harvard University and recently toured the laboratory of physical chemist .

Courbin studies the properties of non-Newtonian fluids, which can simultaneously display properties of liquids and solids. One such fluid is starch mixed with water (see a competition-winning video of the substance).

Courbin expects the collaboration to be mutually beneficial. He hopes to help Adri脿鈥檚 team achieve new textures by tweaking foods at the molecular level. Yet he is also keen to explore the physical properties of foods from the kitchen of elBulli. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really an interaction to try and improve our understanding of a problem,鈥� Courbin says. 鈥淚n the end we would get an understanding of something, he will get an improvement in a product.鈥�

And if the Harvard collaboration yields a paper or two, don鈥檛 be surprised to see Adri脿 among the authors, he says. 鈥淲e publish with some industrial people, why not with a famous chef?鈥�

I haven鈥檛 eaten at elBulli. With 2 million applications for 8,000 seats a year, few get the chance, though the New 杏吧原创 editor is one of the lucky few that did get a seat 鈥� you can read his account here. Instead I took the opportunity of Adri脿鈥檚 visit to Harvard to chat to the chef about his cutting-edge techniques.

How did you discover how to make spheres of liquids?

Spherification was an idea I got from a factory visit in 2003. I went there with a friend, and we saw a little glass that had spheres in it. I asked 鈥淲hat is this?鈥� They started saying it was an alginate solution. 鈥淒o you have alginate here? Give it to me,鈥� I said.

You have to put some calcium chloride in it to get the effect, so we went to the drug store and bought some. We arrived at our workshop and we began to mix things 鈥� and the first sphere was made.

It was like magic, but we were limited to a small number of products. The moment we put alginate in any liquid that has any acidity or salinity, it will not work.

But then we realised that if we made a bath of this alginate solution and we simply added yogurt, then it reacted because yogurt contains calcium. That鈥檚 the inverse spherification. Then we discovered calcium gluconolactate. It鈥檚 a salt which is completely tasteless.

We can now construct spheres with whatever liquid we want inside.

What other cooking methods have you pioneered?

There鈥檚 a very well-known technique I call 鈥渢he airs鈥�. It was simply a day that we were making apple juice and we took one of these mixers to blend it and we could see a vapor coming out 鈥� an air coming out. I tasted it, it was marvellous. It was the lightest texture imaginable. After that we made it with beets and the vapour also came out. The third one was a failure.

And you also use liquid nitrogen in your kitchen.

It鈥檚 unbelievable that before 2002, it was simply not utilised in high-end cooking. Why? Incomprehensible! People say: 鈥淭his is coming from the world of science. It is way too complicated.鈥�

It鈥檚 just a product. It鈥檚 -196 掳C. It鈥檚 cold. It鈥檚 magical, but it is very simply a product.

This has allowed us to make things that were unimaginable before. Sorbet with lots of alcohol is simply impossible to make. Thanks to liquid nitrogen, you can make sorbet with anything. Pure alcohol if you want. The crystal size is much smaller, so when you are eating it, it鈥檚 like a cream. It鈥檚 the best way to make sorbets.

You shutter your restaurant for six months of the year and work on new dishes in a workshop, some call it a laboratory. What goes on there?

Cooking. It鈥檚 not a lab, as a matter of fact. It鈥檚 a cooking workshop.

How do you come up with your recipes?

There are many different paths to creation. There is a way we call consecutive, which is the silliest one. You鈥檙e working on making a new beer and you end up doing an ice cream. One thing takes you to the other.

In other cases, you want something very particular and you go for it, trying to find the right way. We discovered this new salty meringue this year while we were looking for a meringue with a different taste.

Sometimes I go to the market, find two products I鈥檝e never used before and take them home and try something out. There are many different ways to create.

Can home cooks learn anything from your cuisine?

The cooking is easy, but you have to practise a lot. The difficult thing is to have ideas.

Food science is associated with homogenised fruits and vegetables, artificial colours and preservatives. What good can science do for food?

Science has created very good things. The whole wine industry is now related to science 鈥� and it鈥檚 done amazing things for wine.

In the nutrition industry, about 90% of the products are not very good, but about 10% are. But that鈥檚 not a problem of science, it鈥檚 a problem of the market. The good items are very expensive and there are very few people who can spend that kind of money.

The nutrition industry makes possible things that were impossible before, that are now available to many people. It鈥檚 very easy to say that everything is bad.

I understand you work with scientists.

There are some points for which it鈥檚 not necessary to have the knowledge of science. We know already how some things work. Sometimes you get to the limit of what you know and then you need help from science to take you further.

If you want to make a salty meringue, how do you do that? You need a certain knowledge. We can try to make this salty meringue, but if we don鈥檛 know how to get further, we ask scientists for help.

But I don鈥檛 need to know how things work, I just need to know how to do it

Finding people like scientists that can help us with our ideas is a very difficult task. Being at elBulli opens a lot of doors, but many of the chefs in the world simply cannot do that.

Is this what brings you to Harvard?

The kind of cooking I鈥檝e done at elBulli uses many concepts from basic physics and basic physical chemical processes. I want to know more about this. I also want to understand why scientists are interested in our creations.

It concerns me that, when it deals with cooking, science is treated in a disrespectful way. Science is a very serious thing. And in recent times, at least with respect to cooking, you see science being treated as if it were a show or mere spectacle. That鈥檚 not what I鈥檓 interested in at all.

Based on an interview with Ferran Adri脿 and a public lecture at Harvard, translated from Spanish and Catalan by Roberto Kolter and Otger Camp脿s