a day at elBulli

2 hours before the show was to start, the mothership managed to score us some free tix to the highlight of good food month which everyone has been talking about- ferran adria. he was in sydney (and melb) to spruik his new book a day at elBulli.


and for the next 2 hours my little mind was blown away by the gorgeous photo slideshows that were interspersed with adrias talk. dressed in his chefs whites, the man was charming with a wry sense of humour that managed to be conveyed perfectly by his translator. he was passionate and so eager to share his techniques and experiences such as the mimetiso technique making jelly in the perfect shape of strawberries.

there was a round of laughter when adria showed a film clip on how he made his unique sponge cake with something as simple as a microwave which he claimed provided the most incredibly lightest texture. famous for his use of nitrogen in the kitchen adria says “nitrogen is a very simple product but everyone associates it with science… like it’s from mars… but please dont stick your finger in liquid nitrogen it will hurt!”


adria said his greatest pressure is respect. “in creativity the worst enemy is monotony. to avoid the monotony it’s important to create a certain amount of chaos. what is chaos? not knowing what to do.” attending this talk was probably as close as ill ever get to ferran adria and elBulli- did you know his 50 seat restaurant takes only 8,000 people a year and a crazy two million apply for places? while i was totally engrossed in his talk i wasnt a huge fan of the q&a time where the editor from good living and 2 sydney chefs asked him questions which sounded so un-spontaneous. another peeve of mine was the amount of people who left their seats while he was talking just so they could secure a book for him to sign at the end. pfft it’s not like you can press pause and rewind to see what youve missed out while you were gone!


after the show there was a mad rush for the queue to get adria to sign their book but what some unlucky people found out was that if you had preordered the ticket + book deal then the book was already signed heh heh and they got kicked off the queue which meant they missed out on the photo lol a giant thank you to aunty nancy (and her sons gf) who got us the tix!


and since we hadnt had any dinner we crossed the street to swissotel for a sugar hit!


‘three treats with chocolate’- milk chocolate velvet cheesecake; dark chocolate with caramel & pear; white chocolate with coconut sorbet. the cheesecake was gorgeously smooth but my favourite part of the dessert was the square of caramel and pear sweet, but not cloying


the drinks were a bit on the strong side haha but very pretty looking at least =P