30 DAYS OPEN PURCHASEThis is a biography, not a cookbook, which is worth knowing before you buy it. Colman Andrews follows Ferran Adrià from his military service, where he cooked for the troops and learnt how to work at volume, all the way to elBulli and what became the most talked about restaurant in the world.
Andrews is the right person for the job. He co founded Saveur and served as its editor in chief for four years, later contributed to Gourmet, and before that had written Catalan Cuisine, the book that introduced Catalan cooking to an English speaking audience. In other words, he knew the world Adrià came from before Adrià became famous.
He also spent more than a decade in conversation with Adrià and was given unrestricted access to his family, friends and workshop. It is that access that makes the book useful, because a significant part of the work lies in separating what actually happened from what has become myth. There is an unusual amount of the latter surrounding elBulli.
The book was published in 2010, after the closure had already been announced but before it actually happened. It was written while the story was still unfolding, and it shows.
If you have the elBulli volumes on your shelf, this is the book that explains the man behind them. 360 pages of prose, not a single dish to cook.
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 360
Language: English
First published: 2010
