Why You Shouldn't Try Molecular Gastronomy At Home, According To Albert Adrià - Exclusive
As one of the culinary forces behind the seminal (and dearly departed) modernist Spanish restaurant el Bulli, Albert Adrià helped popularize molecular gastronomy techniques like spherification, gels, and foams. This science-based approach to cuisine has proved very influential, with el Bulli's innovations being widely copied across the world of fine dining. Adriá has continued his exploration of the boundaries of creativity in the kitchen with his current restaurant, Enigma.
Despite Adrià championing modernist techniques in his professional kitchens, he explained to Tasting Table in an exclusive interview that he doesn't think it's a good idea for home cooks to follow in his footsteps. "I wouldn't even try to do it at home, these things," he says.
For Adrià, the problems with trying molecular gastronomy at home are twofold. For one, most amateur cooks don't have access to the cutting-edge equipment that he does. Even more importantly, he continues, "It's a very complex cuisine that you really need to know how to do, and you have to have done it before ... There's lots of small, little details and little tricks that will make it good or terrible."
Preserving the mystery of the kitchen
While Adrià has a good point that it's hard to execute complicated scientific cooking techniques after watching an Instagram tutorial, he may have another reason to discourage home cooks from trying molecular gastronomy. It seems like he's a fan of maintaining a sense of mystery around the way he transforms ingredients — his restaurant's name is Enigma, after all.
His penchant for obfuscation became clear when we asked him was he was going to cook for the upcoming tribute dinner for Massimo Bottura and Luca Garavoglia at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. He willingly divulged that he was preparing a vegan burrata, but when pressed on how it was made, he replied, "It's a secret ... With love. With love. With soya beans and a lot of love." For us as customers, not knowing the tricks behind his dishes preserves the magic of the dining experience.
The South Beach Wine & Food Festival runs from February 22-25. Tickets for the tribute dinner for Massimo Bottura and Luca Garavoglia can be purchased here.