Behind the Scenes at elBulli

Ferran Adrià with his translator Lucy Garcia, Lisa Abend, author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià’s elBulli, and the New Yorker‘s Adam Gopnik for a fascinating discussion about his inspired philosophy in the kitchen at his world-famous restaurant, elBulli.

The clip above begins with Adam Gopnik asking Adrià how often he visits New York City. Many times, Ferran responded. One visit that sticks out was a trip in 1988 when he stayed at the Royalton Hotel. It was, he said, one of the first “designed, chic, slick hotel,” with the modern design associated with them. “He couldn’t sleep all night,” his translator explained, “because he didn’t know how to turn the lights off.”

The next question dealt with transformative food experiences. But first, Adrià wanted to address something he thought was important: water. “We don’t seem to give it the importance it deserves,” he said. Joseph Galarneau was at the talk and wrote on his Twitter that Adrià spent ten minutes talking about the sensory aspects of drinking water. It was actually closer to five! And as Ferran told the audience, “something that is odorless, transparent, has no flavor, if you analyze, it would be very, vary hard to find anything quite like it. There aren’t many products like this in the world.”

Watch the clip to hear that and more, including how the kitchen staff spends most of their time at elBulli.