Spanish Catalan chef (1962- )
We opened El Bulli; there were no secrets there. The recipes were not secret. Anybody who came, the recipes were there for them. This was unthinkable then.
FERRAN ADRIA
"World's top chefs talk cuisine, creativity in Chicago", Chicago Tribune, Mar. 20, 2014
Our kitchen is a kitchen that makes food designed to be tasted with the five senses and it requires concentration to appreciate all that we want to express.
FERRAN ADRIA
The Vancouver Sun, Mar. 4, 2014
The person who's receiving the food cooks as much as the chef. They have a very important role to play.... There's no other activity that the person who receives it can destroy the work, can participate in how it's being done. It's emotional. Sometimes journalists are going to have to start talking more about the diners than the chefs.
FERRAN ADRIA
"World's top chefs talk cuisine, creativity in Chicago", Chicago Tribune, Mar. 20, 2014
At one point cinema and photography weren't treated as art. Now it's crazy to think they're not. The key question is "What is art today?" The most important artists of the last 20 years are Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive, because the influence they have had is incredible and they've changed the world. That is art.
FERRAN ADRIA
Disegno Daily, Apr. 28, 2014
People need to understand. If they go to a show on Broadway and find seventy people working but only fifty spectators, how much would the ticket cost? That's what El Bulli's about. There are seventy actors who are playing for just fifty spectators. Is the price expensive? It's relative. How much does a normal dinner at a five-star hotel restaurant cost? Four hundred dollars. It's the same as El Bulli. But you can also think of it this way: How much would it cost to eat something that nobody else is eating?
FERRAN ADRIA
Esquire, Jan. 2011
I don't have a favorite cooking tool. In the kitchen, I always have my pencil and notebook in my hand. I cook more theoretically than I do practically. My job is creative, and in the kitchen, the biggest part of my creativity is theoretical. The pencil has a symbolic meaning for me. The type of person who carries a pencil around is the type of person who's open to change. Someone who walks around with a pen isn't; he's the opposite.
FERRAN ADRIA
GQ, Jul. 27, 2011
If you think well, you cook well.
FERRAN ADRIA
remarks at book signing, Sep. 29, 2011
There's not one way of cooking. The problem with elBulli is that we did so many different things. We were looking to push the boundaries. In the end, we created 1846 recipes, each one was a story.
FERRAN ADRIA
interview, Toronto Life, Mar. 13, 2014
There are a lot of products still to be discovered in the world and experimentation, for example with seafood and fish. There are thousands of products that we're not eating right now that maybe will be cultivated in a good agriculture situation, a sustainable, ecological way. Maybe there will be textures or flavors we hadn't even thought of. In the Amazon there are 400 fruits that are not cultivated right now. They're just incredible fruits. Textures, tastes that we don't know right now.
FERRAN ADRIA
"World's top chefs talk cuisine, creativity in Chicago", Chicago Tribune, Mar. 20, 2014
My idol was Johann Cruyff (a Dutch soccer player) and I wanted to be like him. But when I realized that I would never be, I decided to do something else. I met the kitchen by chance and quickly became completely enamoured by it.
FERRAN ADRIA
The Vancouver Sun, Mar. 4, 2014
Creativity means not copying.
FERRAN ADRIA
Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2011
People wouldn't think of making avant-garde cuisine at home. When people play basketball at home, they can't play like Michael Jordan.
FERRAN ADRIA
The Daily Beast, Jan. 29, 2014
We knew the time would come that we'd have to step down because we'd been winning Oscars for 15 years. I discovered this one day when I got home, my mother was reading a newspaper and she said, 'Again? What are you doing in the papers?' And I realized if my mother thought that of me, what would my enemies think?
FERRAN ADRIA
remarks at a book signing in Washington, D.C., Sep. 30, 2011
There is not a good or a bad cuisine, just the one you like the best.
FERRAN ADRIA
remarks at book signing, Sep. 29, 2011
Could you imagine people eating a painting -- if they could introduce a painting into their bodies? It's probably the artist's dream, and we have the opportunity to do so.
FERRAN ADRIA
Esquire, Jan. 2011
You may say, "Oh, no. You can't touch a traditional recipe." But we ask: why can't you? Back in 1350, a vinaigrette was a stew, so we ask, why not? This can be applied to any kind of cooking, and that's the shocking part of it. It kind of bends all the traditions. It's a good thing.
FERRAN ADRIA
interview, Toronto Life, Mar. 13, 2014
You can see it on the Internet now. New society demands that people share their knowledge. It's asking multimillionaires to share their money and creative people to share their creativity. Whoever doesn't share their wealth, be it knowledge, money, or creativity, will be dead.
FERRAN ADRIA
Esquire, Jan. 2011
El Bulli was created by 2,000 people that passed through it. And we didn't know that something big was happening. It was like a game in a way. You didn't really know how it was going to end up, and people who would leave, they would take a piece of it with them, but they would leave another piece behind.
FERRAN ADRIA
"World's top chefs talk cuisine, creativity in Chicago", Chicago Tribune, Mar. 20, 2014
In more day-to-day restaurants, things have undergone a seismic change towards informality and sharing, which has been years in the making. Nowadays, people don't want just one dish; they want to order lots of things and they want to do it in fun places, places that give them an experience. The experience that a restaurant needs to offer is no longer just based around the food.
FERRAN ADRIA
interview, Square Meal, Sep. 2011
There's a little treat I like a lot called Bollycao. It's like a brioche with chocolate inside, but industrial.
FERRAN ADRIA
interview, Bon Appetit, Jan. 24, 2014