It is no coincidence that London’s Somerset House should have chosen the figure of Ferran Adrià to define “The Art of Food”. But we do have to ask ourselves who really chose whom. Two years after closing elBulli, Adrià – our world famous icon of gastronomy – is still an international benchmark of culinary creativity and research, whilst Somerset house, with its spectacular neo-classical building in the heart of London has attracted over 2.5 million visitors every year since its opening in 2000. It’s a perfect partnership which is joined by Estrella Damm and the Instituto Ramón Llull, an organisation internationally recognised for promoting Catalan language and culture.
© Matthew Lloyd for Somerset House
It is no coincidence that London’s Somerset House should have chosen the figure of Ferran Adrià to define “The Art of Food”. But we do have to ask ourselves who really chose whom. Two years after closing elBulli, Adrià – our world famous icon of gastronomy – is still an international benchmark of culinary creativity and research, whilst Somerset house, with its spectacular neo-classical building in the heart of London has attracted over 2.5 million visitors every year since its opening in 2000. It’s a perfect partnership which is joined by Estrella Damm and the Instituto Ramón Llull, an organisation internationally recognised for promoting Catalan language and culture.
Somerset House “elBulli: Ferran Adrià and the Art of Food” is a retrospective that gives us an insight into the character of Ferran Adrià as well as an in depth analysis of the artistic and creative process that has enabled the restaurant to invent a catalogue of 1,846 dishes, through a combination of multimedia presentations, photographs, magazine covers, hand-written notes and sketches, plasticine models of the dishes used to monitor the colour and size of each portion, specially designed equipment etc.
As Adrià himself says, “Despite the closure of elBulli, its spirit lives on and this exhibition is one way of keeping it alive […] Overall, it is an ode to the creativity, imagination, innovation, talent and above all the work of all the famous chefs who trained with us and have spread our values all over the world by opening their own restaurants.” He also says that he is delighted that the exhibition is in Somerset House which, just like elBulli, always invites you to try something new and perhaps a little unexpected.
Despite the closure of elBulli, its spirit lives on and this exhibition is one way of keeping it alive (…) Overall, it is an ode to the creativity, imagination, innovation, talent and above all the work of all the famous chefs who trained with us and have spread our values all over the world by opening their own restaurants.
Following this exhibition, elBulli already has a number of projects under way which will continue to delight us and show us that cooking is an art, and that fusing creativity with food can help wake up all of our senses; as humans, we should experience food through all five, not just through taste. One such project is the creation of a charitable foundation that will convert elBulli into an experimental centre, giving visitors the chance to be inspired, and the creation of the Bullipedia archive which will include the history of the restaurant and give a structured look at the DNA of elBulli’s cuisine.
In addition, in 2014 publishing house Phaidon will release a catalogue of the concoctions from elBulli’s kitchen complete with photographs of the food, international reviews and much of the information that we can see in person in “The Art of Food”.
The Art of Food
The exhibition opens in London after a year in the Palau Robert in Barcelona and it will be open to the public until the 29th of September. So what are you waiting for?
“Ferran Adrià and the Art of Food”
Somerset House in collaboration with Estrella Damm and Instituto Ramón Llull
Strand – Londres WC2R 1LA
5 June – 29 September 2013
Hours: 10am -6pm daily, until 21pm on Thursdays
Somerset House: www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/elbulli-ferran-adria-and-the-art-of-food
Instituto Ramón Llull: www.llull.cat
[su_note note_color=”#eaeae9″]Translated by Sarah Burne James[/su_note]