The New York Times featured an interesting story Sunday about an unexpected culinary controversy that has erupted in Spain.
As any foodie worth his liquid nitrogen knows, Spain is the progenitor of so-called molecular gastronomy, a cooking style that employs unconventional technologies to change the ordinary form and texture of ingredients. This style, whose best example in Atlanta is Richard Blais, is witty above all but it also often heightens the experience of flavor.
The godfather of this movement is Ferran Adrià whose restaurant, el Bulli, I visited about six years ago with a Greek friend from London. It was as much theater as dining and, while I enjoyed it, my friend detested it. He’s a scientist and complained, predictably, that it was like eating “laboratory experiments.”
The Times reports:
Santi Santamaría, one of the country’s most prominent chefs, has directed bruising public attacks at his avant-garde counterparts, accusing them of producing pretentious food they would not eat themselves — and potentially poisoning diners with chemicals that he says have no place in the kitchen.
“Some chefs are offering a media spectacle rather than concerning themselves with healthy eating,” Mr. Santamaría said as he accepted a recent prize for his new book, “La Cocina al Desundo” (“The Kitchen Laid Bare”). In it, the burly, outspoken chef, who trumpets his own dedication to natural ingredients, assails the proliferation of junk food culture — and once again takes on the effete creations of the Spanish avant-garde kitchen.
“We have to decide, as chefs, if we want to continue to use the fresh products of our Mediterranean diet or opt for using additives,” he told journalists in Madrid on Monday, when he repeated a call for the Spanish authorities to investigate restaurants’ use of, for example, liquid nitrogen, for instant freezing, and methyl cellulose, a gelling agent.
The predictable response has been that there is nothing incompatible about avant-garde techniques and healthy cooking with top-quality ingredients. I say it’s “predictable” in part because this style of cooking has helped make Spain’s culture the European Union’s most cutting-edge. So, there is a broad investment in maintaining that rep.
For myself, I think Adrià’s influence has only improved Spanish cuisine. I’ve traveled frequently in Spain and never found the cuisine up to the Italian or French style. I remember once, in Barcelona, becoming so starved for a green vegetable that I sought out a very hippie-esque vegan cafe that was full of other Americans.
The Times piece concludes with this cogent observation:
Dan Barber, chef of Blue Hill in New York, said that the dispute was reminiscent of the storm over nouvelle cuisine in France in the 1970s and a more recent, nationalist debate over the use of non-French ingredients in haute cuisine. Mr. Barber, an advocate of organic, local ingredients who is an admirer of Mr. Adrià, said the controversy bore testimony to how mature the Spanish culinary movement had become.
Read the entire story here.
I’ve confirmed with my own palate 