Style vs. Substance

Today we wrapped up the presentations in Intro to Gastronomy. My group's presentation on M.F.K. Fisher seems like ages ago. Anyway, today's subjects were Thomas Keller and Ferran Adria.

Unless you know something about them, it's difficult for me to explain just how different these two chefs are. I'll start with my own biases -- Keller, to me, is just about the pinnacle of everything you could hope to achieve culinarily. I've waffled sometimes on whether or not he might be overrated, and I often don't care for the way he writes his menus (PDF link), but there's no denying the care, craftmanship and perfection (he'd say he's still striving for perfection and will never reach it) he sends out with every dish. I have no doubt that even with all the build up, eating at The French Laundry during my "California Experience" between my junior and senior years will be perhaps the greatest meal I'll ever eat. As our professor said today, "it's difficult to eat at The French Laundry and not have an aesthetic experience."

Then you have Adria, the so-called "mad scientist" of the kitchen. I really tried to go into today's presentation with an open mind, but everything I've read about him turns me off. Adria is the guy who started the "foam" crazy of the 1980s when he started putting everything and anything into those CO2 whipped cream canisters and foaming the contents right onto the plate. I think there's a place for this, but c'mon, sea water foam? When everyone else started copying him, Adria stopped doing foams and moved to making "airs" out of ingredients. He serves a vial of split pea soup in a balloon. He makes pasta out of agar agar (seaweed gelatin). He makes crepes out of the skin that forms when you heat milk. His tables have no silverware, no plates, no glasses, just a white linen tablecloth. The dishes often come with instructions, like "drink very slowly," "eat in one bite," or "alternate the two items." Adria closes his restaurant, El Bulli, for six months out of the year and takes his entire crew to a laboratory in Barcelona to work on the next season's dishes.

I'm sure he's brilliant. I'm sure the food even tastes good, and I'm not so stubborn about this that I would turn down a chance to eat at his restaurant. But this sort of thing is way beyond what I'm interested in doing in my career, and he has -- as is human nature, I guess -- spawned a group of people trying to do the same thing, or at least capitalize on the craze. If I hear one more time about how Grant Achatz is the greatest thing ever because he atomized shrimp cocktail and serves it to you in a spritz bottle, I'm going to scream. In his article "Aboard Spaceship Adria," Anthony Bourdain quotes Eric Ripert (Ripert's right up there with Keller in my book), "He's [Adria] a phenomenon. But we need one Ferran Adria, not five. I don't see anyone succeeding in emulating him."

I will say this for Adria, though. While his food doesn't interest me, I can respect him for pushing the envelope and sticking to his mantra, "Don't copy anyone." And when others copy him, he decides it's to move on to something new. That said, I'm in complete agreement with Ripert, and I hope he's right.