A Day at El Bulli
by Albert Adrià, Ferran Adrià, Juli Soler
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Book Reviews of A Day at El Bulli
Book Review: It's a photo album...
Summary: 5 Stars
My Wife and I were Lucky enough to eat at El Bulli in September of 2007. Actually, I was the lucky one and she was gracious enough to let me drag her to the other side of the planet for a very strange, (but spectacular) dinner.
I just found out that this book existed. Firstly, it does not even pretend to be a "cook book". If that's what was expected then one should have bought the actual cook books, (published chronologically), from El Bulli directly. This book is a pictorial love letter. To me, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the books production, it feels personal.
My own photo album mimics much of what is seen here. It's simply the real deal. A lot is made of Ferran and his restaurant. I understand why but what gets lost in all of the global hype is the simple fact that you are eating dinner at someone's house. It's small. There is no menu. No Pretense, and Ferran is actually there. Also,everybody else is just plain friendly.
It's food, not Worship. Fun...not analysis. Frankly, I've had better food in my life. However, I've never had a "Greater" dining experience. Once I received the reservation, we had to wait a full year. Here it is more than a year after and I still think about the experience all the time. What other Restaurant can give you that?
Ferran could charge 5 times what he does and still be full every night but he doesn't. That says something to me. He is laser focused on his own personal vision and when you go there you are merely a participant along for the ride...and what a crazy ride it is. Anyway, back to the book.
There is no way that this book is relevant to most casual observers. If I hadn't eaten there, i doubt even I would be interested to own it. Like I said, to me, this is one spectacular memory of the night we spent there. The table we sat at is photographed many times over and I have vivid memories of many other photos as well.
To this day, I'm still not sure if what I ate at El Bulli should be considered "dining". I doubt I ever will figure that out with any precision. That's why I loved it. It's the same with this book. You'll page through it and ponder it's ideas for years but you'll probably never arrive at any real resolution. I haven't. What other "cookbook" can do that? Talk about getting your monies worth...
Book Review: Hands down. THE Best 33 bucks I've spent on Amazon.
Summary: 5 Stars
A book about a restaurant, but not about food.
Rather it is an examination of the unique philosophies and processes (not to mention sheer will and effort) that goes into creating one of the most creative places on earth.
For anyone who makes their living with creativity, ideas or innovation, be warned. Reading this is as humbling an experience as it is inspiring.
On one level, all the elements and themes explored are familiar to any book about ideas - curiosity, diversity, insight, experimentation, craft, debate and interrogation.
And yet they are taken to such extreme levels of commitment - like 4000 hours of creative development for just 160 meal services a year; or how every single ingredient is taken through a battery of heat, texture, portion, distillation and combination tests merely to discover a hidden property of a food. It is nothing short of a question-everything approach that permeates El Bulli's unique methods, processes and business.
What I also love about this book is how instructive it is in terms of methods and techniques of creative ideation and refinement. In between the fly-on-the-wall pieces and interviews and stories, there are also little process pamphlets that reveal how Ferran Adria and his team actually go about discovering and developing and designing.
All in all, hands down THE best 33 bucks i've spent on Amazon.
Completely and utterly humbling.
Book Review: This is a book about the creative process rather than a cookbook
Summary: 5 Stars
I would not consider this a cookbook. The bulk of the book consists of pictures and some text. I would say this is an interesting book about creativity. It shows how the creative process works in one world class, very innovative restaurant. This is an interesting read/reflection if you are interested in creativity in general.
You do get a sample of recipes. Given the price of the other El Bulli books, it might not even be a bad deal if you just want some of Adria's recipes. Still the recipes are mainly included to show the outcome of the creative process.
This book does not really cover the different methods/machines used in molecular gastronomy. If you want to understand the methods used, I would recommend starting with Blumenthal's "The big fat duck" and reading a few blogs. Two good things with the Blumenthal book is that it has a section on methods/machines and is available in a low cost paperback. Then you can get Adria's chronological description of his creations over the years, for instance start with 2003-4. I'm sure there will be more practical books geared towards a lay audience in the coming few years. Let's revisit the issue in 2011.
Book Review: This is a difficult one
Summary: 4 Stars
The book has close to 600 pages at 30 something $ from a world renowned 3 star chef. I will update this review in over the next few weeks why it all settles in.
It is not really a cookbook. Compared to the Alinea book this feels more like a coffee table book, it does have recipes though and it definitely shows how they do things.
For me at first quick view it seems they tried putting a movie into a book. While I can see that some people are turned off by this, for me it works.
The only complaint I have is, it sems when the book hit interesting spots, they changed the paper to a much thinner/cheaper type. Not sure why.
So that all said, I have already the Alinea book which I like, even though I don't think I ever will coook an entire menu. I also have Heston's Fat Duck book right now in transit from the UK which is 3 or 4 times the price of this one.
So once I get that, I will update here. If you are interested in the El Bulli experience, this is a nice book and a good prep for the trip.. If you are looking to learn from Ferran how too cook, this is not it.
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JK
Book Review: This is a picture book, not a cookbook
Summary: 1 Stars
This is one of the most unusual books I have seen - and not really in a good way. It is essentially a scrapbook comprised of full page photos (none of which are great quality) with some unusual less than full size inserts and inclusions, none of which are terribly illuminating. If you want to see what El Bulli looks like and are willing to pay the cover price for this to do so, then have at it. To it's credit, the book is creative in concept like its subject, but here the execution falls way short. I still don't understand its purpose. There is nothing here that can be cooked at home, and in fact there is not even anything to look at and drool over. The photos are more for the purpose of "revealing" the process of creating a new dish and presenting it at the restaurant. I would love to eat there and I would love to learn more about the chef and his restaurant, but this book just left me confused and disappointed that I had spent so much for so little. Tip: find this in a book store; scan through it for about 3 minutes; put it back; send me a thank you note.