One of the first things I remember learning in my Design Journalism class was ‘no idea is original’—someone else out there has probably already thought of your ‘brilliant’ idea. Maybe they have executed it differently but essentially all the great ideas have already been thought of.
I found this quite disheartening as an enthusiastic, young designer.
But listening to Ferran Adrià, from elBulli restaurant, and seeing examples of his work, I find it difficult to believe this rule. I am inclined to think, with a smile, that this may not be true. He believes that “creativity is not to copy” and that he and his team are “creating a new language” in cuisine.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see Ferran speak at the recent Design Indaba held at the CTICC in Cape Town. King of molecular gastronomy, although he doesn’t like to label himself as this, he plays with all sorts of ideas from science, ecology, education, to health and happiness. These are the things that go into creating a meal, cooking “crosses all disciplines,” he says.
On trying to explain how he comes up with his ideas, he says he just can’t. His ideas are a part of his soul. When an idea comes to him, he develops it and if it works then it becomes part of the menu. Sounds so simple.
Open for only six months of the year, the other six months he spends researching food trends, travelling the world with his team and creating new dishes. He says elBulli has “creative schizophrenia”, because they do something new each year. At the beginning of each new season “we always start with an omelette”—and each year the omelette is different. His life experiences and relationships for that year determine how the omelette will turn out.
For those of you who enjoy the occasional meal by yourself beware. Ferran doesn’t believe you can enjoy a dinner by yourself. It’s a “multi-sensorial discipline” and needs conversation, and lots of people sharing the experience, to make it whole.
One of the examples he showed us, of the many creations for this year’s menu, was a tomato and liquid nitrogen item. He showed us a video of how it is made. He starts by making a tomato sauce and injects it into a balloon. Then he blows up the balloon and rolls it over bubbling liquid nitrogen. The sauce contains two types of thickening agents, to get the right consistency, and it cooks on the inside of the balloon as it comes in contact with the liquid nitrogen. Then the balloon is pierced and peeled, leaving behind a perfect sphere of tomato. To finish off the ‘fake tomato’ he then injects this tomato sphere with tomato foam. Now that’s innovation.
I’m not sure about you, but making something like this has never even crossed my mind, or even come near my mind. Creativity is alive and well over at El Bulli.
Good Taste Buds 