October 2001
Dear ReaderI have just returned from the most extraordinary cooking demonstration - probably the most mind-boggling of my life!
Given by two Spanish three-Michelin-star chefs at the Adelaide Hilton during Tasting Australia (a bi-annual international foodie event), it opened my mind not just to the ways in which dishes evolve but also to a number of inventive new cookery techniques.
One is Ferran Adria from El Bulli restaurant in north-east Spain and the other is Juan Arzak of Arzak's restaurant in San Sebastian. Both are good friends and both represent avant-garde cuisine, pushing the boundaries when it comes to taste, texture, flavour and technique.
This was their first major cooking demo outside of Spain and now that they've revealed some of their secrets to the international food media, you're bound to hear a lot more about them.
While Arzak's cuisine springs essentially from the Basque region in which he lives, utilising seasonal seafood like baby squid, hake, clams and crabs, Adria's is harder to pinpoint.
In many ways, he is to food what Salvador Dali was to painting - outrageous and at times shocking, a great self-promoter but certainly never dull. Some critics claim it's not food he serves at El Bulli, but "constructs" of foam and rubber - and that he is more an alchemist than a chef.
As I watched his assistant Alberto demonstrate how a glass of water can be transformed into various textures, Adria's references to magic, creativity and freedom in the kitchen began to make sense.
"One way to be creative with water is to change its temperature," he told us.
"To change it from liquid to a solid, we add gelatine. To make it into a sauce, we emulsify it with a barmix which makes it frothy. Then we put it in the microwave which breaks down the gelatine, then add more water and decant it from a certain height into a jug. Then we emulsify it further and get a foam which becomes stable when it has cooled down.
Now what would happen if we add air? If we put it in a Kitchen Aid and beat it, it becomes buttery. If we then put it in the freezer it stabilises to a material which we can cut into different shapes - or we can roll it up in plastic and then cut it. And once it's frozen, it can be grated. And if we've added sugar or alcohol to the water, we can make a crusty granita which dissolves quickly in the mouth.
A further evolution of textures would be to incorporate more air, put it in a siphon and siphon it into a glass.
Now what would happen if we start all over again and use agar instead of gelatine?"
This masterful demonstration of the evolution of textures and the way in which various techniques can be used to change a glass of water left most of us gaping.
As he pointed out, water is just a starting point and you can experiment with orange juice, vegetable juice, truffle juice, whatever. Whilst on stage, he and his very able assistant showed us a few of the dishes they serve at El Bulli.
One is his interpretation of Risotto alla Milanese in which he uses bean sprouts instead of arborio rice. The white sprouts are cut to the same length as the rice grains, then sauteed quickly in a little butter, saffron and water. A foam of parmesan cheese, made by combining warm cream and finely grated parmesan cheese in a siphon, is piped around the outside and ecco! Risotto Milanese al Ferran Adria.
Then there's his Tagliatelle Carbonara, an east-meets-west affair. Clear noodles made from beef stock set with agar agar sit in a mound in the middle of a warm plate surrounded by diced bacon and then drizzled with whisked egg yolks and warm cream.
"When you judge a creative chef," he told us "you have to judge their technique, not the taste of the finished dish - because everyone has different taste. The first rule of creativity is to surprise your clients."
And surprise us he did. A couscous dish, made by blanching finely grated cauliflower for ten seconds in water, then sauteing it in butter and drizzling with reduced lamb stock, was surrounded by a series of seasonings like crumbled spiced bread, diced apple, pine nuts, saffron threads, ginger, lemon and orange zest and diced jellied Campari.
"Everything is in balance so that no one flavour dominates," he explained. "Now you know why we need 35 chefs at El Bulli".
And why people speak of him as an alchemist.
Ferran Adria's Marinated Scallops with Foie-Gras
Ingredients for 4 people
8 scallops
150g foie gras
For the foie-gras dressing
2 tablespoons
chopped chervil
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Mix well and cool in the fridge
For marinating the scallops
4 tablespoons
truffle oil
10g truffles
20 tender hazelnuts, skins off
1 teaspoon pink pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
For the salad
8 artichoke
hearts
8 x 2mm thick truffle slices
4 sprigs chervil leaves
Scallop and Foie-gras preparation
Clean scallops and separate from shell. Discard the eggs (keep just the white part).
Cut scallops in 1mm thick pieces.
Cut foie-gras in small 1mm thick filets and season with white pepper and salt.
Cut hazelnuts and truffles in thin slices, pound pink pepper in the mortar and pestle and mix these ingredients with lemon juice and truffle oil.
Salad preparation
Cut away artichoke stems and cut leaves to a third of their length. Peel the artichoke as if it was an apple and clean the hearts, spraying them with lemon juice.
Boil artichoke hearts with plenty of water and some lemon juice for five minutes. Let them cool down in the same water.
Cut artichoke hearts in 4 x 1cm sticks.
Cut tender hazelnuts in half.
Finish and presentation
In an oval shaped dish alternate scallop slices and foie-gras filets. Season with salt and its corresponding dressing.
Mix all ingredients for the salad and season with salt and pepper. Place it in one side of the dish.
Note: you may mix raw and cooked artichoke in the salad.
