October 16, 2008 |
Short Order
Spain’s passionate chef Jose Andres gives all credit to his visionary mentor Ferran Adria. Photo: Jason Spiro
The audience was near-foaming at the mouth as the Great God Ferran Adria and his charismatic disciple St. Jose Andres entered the kitchen pulpit Sunday in the dramatic climax of the first-ever New York City Wine and Food Festival. The audience whistled and cheered, those eager fans who paid $275 and lined up outside Comix in the meat market to see Spain’s gastronomic visionary at his laboratory Bunsen burner. Personally I expected more show and less tell. The hours stretched as Adria riffed on creativity. I thought the ever-adoring Jose got a little restless as Adria lectured and planned demos stalled. But the stage came alive as Jose finally launched into a passionate deconstruction of clam chowder that Adria interrupted half-way through. (Adria wasn’t that interested. Perhaps because clam chowder is unknown in Spain.) Not that it wasn’t fun to watch a short film of Jose on his annual pilgrimage to Adria’s El Bulli. (Andres is a natural jamon, a lively ambassador for everything Spanish. He flew to Barcelona a few years ago to meet me and the Road Food Warrior and guide our tastings.)
The sold-out event found its energy when the two men and their seconds actually created a faux egg. It involved parmesan water and dried egg white with the addition of powdered seaweed, and the introduction of an actual quail egg yolk. At some point there was immersion into a water bath of calcium salts to create a membrane. A baptism of sorts. Why am I getting all these religious metaphors? But admit it - to create an egg with the flavor of parmesan? Not even an Italian chicken can do that. It takes a Spanish visionary.
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