In restaurants around Europe the pioneers of modern cuisine are developing an appetite for deconstruction. Matt Warnock tucks in
Plates clatter, pots boil and orders are barked. On the surface, this could be the organised chaos of any modern restaurant kitchen. All of a sudden something is poured from a jug into a bowl and a veil of steam crawls over the counter like a lab experiment gone wrong.
This is Calima on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Far from ordinary, it’s the domain of Dani García, one of a new band of culinary alchemists radically changing the face of modern cuisine.
“That’s liquid nitrogen,” explains the 30-year-old Andalucian, casual as a child with a chemistry set. “We’re making olive oil popcorn.” A few years ago, inspired by the French chef Michel Bras’ nitrogen ice cream, he set about probing the limitations of the element and tried “cooking” other ingredients.
“Initially we changed the consistency of cold soups. Then we discovered that the technique could be applied to other foods,” he says. Dishes such as oysters in sherry mary sauce, nitro-sangria of pear and sea bass, and passion fruit with herb and eucalyptus ice cream attest to that ingenuity, simultaneously soothing and ambushing the taste buds.
García is not the first to challenge the confines of traditional gastronomy. During the 1980s, the scientists Hervé This and Nicholas Kurti conducted investigations into the scientific preparation of food, then ran workshops based on their findings. In need of a catchy name, they labelled the new field ‘molecular gastronomy’. That term now refers to a style of cooking that explores food’s scientific possibilities.
“All cooking is based on chemistry,” García says, but he emphasises that the rubric is about more than just elements and reactions. He’s permanently on the lookout for the freshest produce, and if the best ingredients aren’t available on any given day then that dish simply doesn’t appear on the menu. “To my mind, my style isn’t scientific,” he says. “It’s pure Andalucia.”
Almost 2,500km to the north, another young chef is making waves with his unusual and audacious creations.
Anthony’s Restaurant is a true family affair: father, daughter and the executive chef’s girlfriend run the business, but it’s the virtuoso skill of Anthony Flinn Jnr that has diners from all over Europe flocking to this restaurant in the northern English city of Leeds, a short train-hop from Manchester.
“We constantly challenge the norm and simply won’t accept that something can’t be done,” says the chef. “I’ve always been like that.” At 27, the self-assured Yorkshireman is widely regarded as the most exciting young chef in the UK. Where Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck is all cunning witticisms and brio, Flinn’s cuisine is unquestionably compelling and more robust.
Take his white onion risotto with Parmesan air and espresso coffee – already a modern classic – or roast duck served with tobacco-infused apple and spiced bread, or even the milk-poached quail with white bean and cockscomb. Each delights in the purity of its ingredients, as well as the juxtaposition of flavours that shouldn’t work but somehow actually do.
How? “Generally, I just get an idea and then I am persistent until the final product has been achieved, even if it takes years,” says Flinn.
If This and Kurti were the fathers of modern gastronomy, then Ferran Adrià is its magician and jester-in-chief. The 45-year-old, self-taught Catalan is reckoned by critics and kitchen virtuosi alike to be the world’s most experimental and influential chef, if not its greatest ever. His three Michelin-starred El Bulli restaurant – located a couple of hours north of Barcelona – regularly tops lists of the planet’s best eateries. It was a mention in one of the El Bulli books that brought García to the world’s attention, while Flinn perfected his trade under the great one’s tutelage.
Like a culinary Salvador Dalí, Adrià brings to his restaurant an air of delightful eccentricity. He’s best known for his blowing-up technique (used to create foams), but he and his team have moved way past that.
“Nowadays we’re doing a lot of work on dry-freezing, reverse spherification [a unique gelling process] and searching for applications for new texturising products that open up a huge field of possibilities to us,” Adrià enthuses. “Our first contact with the scientific world was back in 1999, but it wasn’t until 2001 that we began collaborating with a team of scientists on new dishes and techniques. Chemistry helps us to understand and in that way we can improve our recipes.”
If the thinking behind the dishes is unashamedly scientific, eating at El Bulli is as ostentatious as a baroque circus. For four hours, the master alchemist guides guests through a tasting menu of 33 small dishes. Liquid nitrogen mojitos are whisked at the table, chicken-skin crêpes arrive, things burst in the mouth and others heat up as you eat them.
For committed gastronomes it’s simply not to be missed, although unfortunately many do. The restaurant is only open from April to October, as the team travel and work on new potions during the winter. The phone lines open in mid-January and, by the end of that first day, both lunch and dinner sittings are fully booked for the entire season.
If you’re after a genuine taste of the Mediterranean filtered through science but can’t swing a place at Adrià’s table, head an hour or so north of Milan to the picturesque shores of Lake Como. Here Ettore Bocchia is the executive chef at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni. His food is typically Italian but, like Adrià, he embraces molecular gastronomy, working with Davide Cassi, professor of matter physics at Parma University, to create revolutionary versions of classic dishes.
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| Above left Ferran Adrià’s niguiri de navajas con spray de jengibre, or clam sushi with ginger spray; Above right Agua de bienvenida a la vainilla, or a vanilla amuse-bouche |
In a spectacle to rival the views from his Mistral restaurant, turbot is fried in a hot sugar solution, gnocchi is made with soya lecithin to avoid the overpowering taste of egg, and Sicilian red prawns are served with guacamole ice cream. Bocchia’s interpretation is simple: “I want to know exactly what happens inside the pot in order to optimise each and every ingredient.”
Their methods may differ, but today’s culinary innovators share a single goal. “Everything we do is to give our clients the best tastes and experiences,” says García. “There are no secrets between us. We all communicate regularly and openly. We’d never copy another chef’s recipe, but we use each other’s techniques. That’s what makes haute cuisine so exhilarating at the moment.”
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| Above, from left Master chefs Anthony Flinn, Dani Garcìa and Ferran Adrià |
The restaurants
Calima
Hotel Gran Meliá Don Pepe,
Marbella, Spain (60km from Málaga), tel. +34 952 764 252
Chef: Dani García
Tasting menu: €90
Must try: Gypsy stew of green beans, pumpkin and Iberian pig tail
Anthony’s Restaurant
19 Boar Lane, Leeds, UK (70km from Manchester), tel. +44 (0)113 245 5922
Chef: Anthony Flinn
Tasting menu: €90 (about £62)
Must try: White onion risotto with Parmesan air and espresso coffee
The Fat Duck
High Street, Bray, Berkshire, UK (100km from central London), tel. +44 (0)1628 580333
Chef: Heston Blumenthal
Tasting menu: €170 (about £116)
Must try: Salmon poached with liquorice
El Bulli
Carrer Cala Montjoi, Roses, Spain (170km from Barcelona), tel. +34 972 150 457
Chef: Ferran Adrià
Tasting menu: €165
Must try: Parmesan wontons in basil foam or curried zucchini seed risotto
Mistral
Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Italy (75km from Milan), tel. +39 031 956435
Chef: Ettore Bocchia
Tasting menu: €79
Must try: Sicilian red prawns with guacamole ice cream, coco cream and starch vegetable waffles
FR » La Cuisine du Futur
Calima sur la Costa del Sol, en Espagne est le domaine de Dani Garcia – un alchimiste culinaire qui transforme l’aspect de la cuisine moderne.
Inspiré il y a quelques années par le chef français Michel Bras, et sa préparation de crème glacée en utilisant du nitrogène, il s’est mis au travail avec cette substance, inventant des plats comme le bar à la nitro-sangria de poire.
Mais il n’est pas le premier sur la place à vouloir aller au-delà des confins de la gastronomie traditionnelle. Durant les années 70, les scientifiques Hervé This et Nicholas Kurti ont mené des recherches sur la préparation des aliments, baptisées ‘gastronomie moléculaire’.
“Toute la cuisine est basée sur des principes chimiques,” souligne Garcia. “Mais en ce qui me concerne, je ne dirais pas que mon style de cuisine est scientifique” c’est du pur andalou.”
A Leeds, Anthony Flinn Junior reçoit des convives qui affluent de toute l’Europe dans son restaurant Anthony’s. Au Royaume-Uni, il a la réputation de chef le plus inventif du moment, avec des plats comme le canard rôti aux pommes infusées dans le tabac et au pain d’épices; ou la caille pochée dans du lait aux haricots blancs et aux fleurs en forme de crête de coq.
Mais le vrai magicien de la cuisine moléculaire est sans conteste Ferran Adrià. Ce Catalan de 44 ans fait figure de chef de file de la cuisine la plus expérimentale sur la planète. El Bulli, son restaurant près de Barcelone plafonne régulièrement comme le meilleur antre des saveurs subtiles.
“La chimie nous aide à comprendre et à améliorer nos recettes,” dit-il. Les mojitos au nitrogène liquide sont mixés à table. Au rayon nouveauté on trouve les crêpes de peau de poulet et certains aliments éclatent littéralement en bouche tandis que d’autres déclenchent de la chaleur dès leur ingestion.
“Nous cherchons essentiellement à donner des sensations agréables à nos clients tout en leur faisant partager des expériences inédites,” continue Garcia. “C’est ce qui rend la grande cuisine si exaltante aujourd’hui.”
NL » Toekomstkeuken
In Calima, aan de Spaanse Costa del Sol, ontketent culinair alchemist Dani Garcia een revolutie in de moderne keuken.
Enkele jaren geleden proefde hij het stikstofroomijs van Franse kok Michel Bras. Het inspireerde hem tot vernieuwende gerechten als stikstofsangria van peer en zeebaars.
Hij is niet de eerste om de traditionele gastronomie uit haar keurslijf te halen. In de jaren 1970 legden Hervé This en Nicolas Kurti zich toe op de wetenschap van het koken. Ze noemden het ‘moleculaire gastronomie’.
“Koken berust altijd op scheikunde”, beklemtoont Garcia. “Mijn stijl is niet wetenschappelijk, maar gewoon Andalusisch.”
In Leeds ontvangt Anthony Flinn Jr gasten van over heel Europa in zijn restaurant Anthony’s. Hij staat bekend als de meest opwindende kok van Engeland, met gerechten als gebraden eend met in tabak gemarineerde appel en kruidkoek; of in melk gepocheerde kwartel met witte bonen en cantharellen.
De koning van de moleculaire gastronomie blijft echter Ferran Adrià. Deze 44-jarige Catalaan is de meest experimentele en invloedrijke chef-kok ter wereld. Zijn restaurant El Bulli, nabij Barcelona, voert met drie Michelinsterren zowat alle restaurantlijsten aan.
“Scheikunde helpt ons onze recepten te begrijpen en te verbeteren”, zegt hij. Aan tafel worden stikstofmojito’s gevolgd door kippenvelpannenkoeken. Sommige ingrediënten ontluiken in de mond, andere warmen op terwijl je ze eet.
“Alles is erop gericht onze klanten te verwennen met de beste smaakbelevingen”, aldus Garcia. “Dat maakt haute cuisine vandaag zo opwindend.”
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