Ferran Adriá does not miss Barcelona when he lands in Argentina.
The
several times awarded "best chef in the world" arrived in Mendoza on Monday and will be in Buenos Aires today
, to give seminars on innovation and creativity, invited by Fundación Telefónica and Zuccardi winery.
The Catalan chef does not miss his homeland because he says: "here it is like in the Mediterranean".
And although Mendoza and the city of Buenos Aires are not by the sea, he clarifies that his perception has to do with the fact that
Argentina is "like being at home."
But we were not always so Mediterranean in our gastronomic culture, according to the creator of the El Bulli Foundation.
Rather, he believes that this process began a few years ago, when the Argentines discovered the ideal point of roasted meat and added raw fish to the gastronomic proposal.
Ferrán Adriá is sure that "the point of roasting has changed a lot in Argentina."
Photo: Ignacio Blanco.
-How is Argentine gastronomy compared to your first visits?
-I am lucky to have come since 97, it is not the same.
I come every three or four years and I have seen a lot of evolution
.
For example, in a very simple detail, on Tuesday at a meeting at the Zuccardi winery, several chefs told me that they now age the meat.
And is that better?
-There may be people who like to cook meat without maturing, but normally experts say that maturation makes meat more tender and such.
But it is not the only thing that has evolved.
The point of meat is another of the things that has changed a lot.
It is no longer strange to ask for the roast to be rare.
I remember when I came the first time, when I asked that they not give me overcooked meat.
And of course, I wasn't going to teach Argentines how to make barbecue, but
before that I didn't want to eat meat like you did.
Now everyone knows the right points of a roast.
-Did we incorporate diversity of flavors and textures?
-Yes, for example with the raw fish that was rarely eaten here.
Possibly it is sushi, which has added more raw fish and has created
a very different culture for seafood than it was a few years ago.
Ferran Adriá at El Bulli in 1984.
There is a generation, already for 10 or 15 years, of young people who are looking for the Argentine identity
to make creative cuisine.
And at some point they are going to find that click, which will be valid for many more people.
So, it is an important evolution, with extraordinary products, such as the vegetables that it has in Argentina.
In Mendoza, where there is no sea, should a restaurant with a high gastronomic level have fish on its menu?
-I think so, because
the menu cannot be all carnivorous.
If you bring crabs from Patagonia on a plane, you have four or six hours of travel, tops.
The issue of the product is easy: if there is a very good apple or a peach in the place, I know there are very good peaches here, you are not going to bring it from abroad.
But, if there isn't any and you feel like eating it, you can get it.
Because I, for example, at home eat cherries from Argentina at Christmas.
When a cook prepares a menu, is he putting his ego on that dish?
-There are many types of cooks: in a hospital, in an airport, at a wedding, in a fast food restaurant or a grill.
For each of them the intention may be different.
We were happy with the challenge of creating something new.
In my case, the first thing was to achieve my happiness.
But, in a society that has changed a lot, the motivation of the cook can change
.
"If you set up a restaurant you have to know or have a partner who knows about business management," says Ferrán Adriá.
Photo: Ignacio Blanco
-How are the new generations of cooks?
-There are brutal changes in recent years.
I try to adapt to new times.
In Europe there is an important struggle in which work in the kitchen can be reconciled with flexible schedules
: like working four days and resting three, to be able to do other things.
And I think it's good that young people have raised it that way
.
-And what advice can you give to young people?
-
To think that
if you set up a restaurant you are setting up a company and you have to know or have a partner who knows business management.
That before making a restaurant they analyze well what and why they want to have it.
Innovation and creation is looking in the mirror and saying what level you want to achieve.
The more you level up, the more difficult and risky it will be.
-You said that some might not like innovative food.
What weight did the customer's opinion have at El Bulli?
-The case of El Bulli is very special because we were avant-garde and we wanted people to be happy.
But, also, it is normal that
when you do avant-garde, there are things that are controversial in themselves and you do them to create that provocation.
Normally a restaurant is a place where you will eat so that you like it.
I think the most important thing is respect, both for the professionals you have in the restaurant, and for the tastes of the customers.
If someone tells you that the food lacks salt, then you bring more salt.
"Argentina is like being at home," says Ferrán Adriá.
Photo: Ignacio Blanco
-What does someone who chooses to go to a restaurant look for?
-Each table is a different universe.
You have to understand that
95 percent of the time a person goes to a restaurant for a social aspect
: a meal with their partner, with friends, work issues and such.
You also have to have an appetite, but it's not just that, because eating a sandwich would already be there.
-So, is the meeting more important than the food?
-
It would be good to analyze the type of people who go to a restaurant and the place that the food occupies.
At El Bulli, sometimes, a couple would come where one of the two ate the entire menu and enjoyed it;
and the other, tasted something from the plate, and left it almost complete.
Then, the service staff asked this person if she had not liked the food.
And the diner always answered yes.
Over time we discovered that what that person liked was to see his companion enjoy the food, more than for his own pleasure.
And he came for this.
It's as if you go to soccer and your partner doesn't like soccer, but wants to see you enjoy it.
-Are you in favor of pairings, combining a meal with a specific type of wine?
-I don't know, those of us who are not wine professionals have to enjoy it and listen to specialists, like Sebastián Zuccardi, who dedicates his life to making wine.
Let everyone do what they want.
If you like the pairing, then you do it.
Sometimes I
like the wine to be the main part of a meal, and the dishes to accompany what I choose to drink.
Ferran Adriá with the El Bulli dessert cart in the 1990s.
-What will the new stage of El Bulli be like?
-We are opening a museum on June 15 about everything that happened in El Bulli 1846, in the same place where it worked (Cala Montjoi, in Rosas, Girona).
It will be an exhibition of what his kitchen was like and all its spaces so that visitors can reflect on management, innovation and creativity.
Something very nice.
-A few years ago, were you a bigger fan of Messi than many Argentines?
-It is that Messi is the best player in the world measurable in the number of successes.
I don't think there are other players who have had these 10 years with so many exquisite moments.
One aspect of Argentina is very interesting and that is that
three of the five great soccer players in the world have been Argentines: Di Stéfano, Maradona and Messi.
-However, Messi was highly criticized by the Argentines.
-This has been very hard for me.
I was from Barcelona and I didn't understand why I was questioning Leo in Argentina when he had given me glorious years.
In a single season, he gave me 100 goals for my team, crazy.
I didn't think the criticism was fair.
So I've been very happy that in the end he's reached the World Cup, which has been a liberation for him.
Ferran Adriá in another of his visits to Argentina.
Photo: German Garcia Adrasti.
-What do you feel every time you visit Argentina?
Well, it is not very different from Spain.
For me, although the city of Buenos Aires is not facing the Mediterranean Sea, it is much more Mediterranean than other countries I have visited.
I adapt on the first day and it is as if I were in my country.
I feel that with the Argentines we understand each other in the first, that there are no filters
, and there is no other country in which I have this feeling of proximity.
look too
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