The Family Meal with Ferran Adria

When I was invited to the launch of Ferran Adria’s new cookbook a few weeks ago, I expected to find something magnificent, though not a cookbook I would ever take into the kitchen and cook from. Adria, after all, is the former chef and driving force behind El Bulli in north-east Spain, often proclaimed the world’s greatest restaurant before it closed in July. He’s also the author of a number of exquisitely illustrated cookbooks in which his radical overhaul of traditional cooking techniques and use of foams, hot jellies, clouds and frozen powders are detailed in complex recipes. When El Bulli 1998 – 2002 hit our shores seven years ago, it cost $325, weighed 5kg and became a “must have” among cutting edge chefs. But despite its jaw-dropping originality, this wasn’t food I wanted to cook at home and I doubted whether any in my family would want to eat it. Indeed some food critics wondered if it could be called food at all. According to Anne Willan of La Varenne cooking school in Burgundy, France, in a review she wrote about El Bulli, “This cooking relates to none other.  It has no history and little sense of place.  It amazes, it excites but in no way does it nourish and satisfy.  In no way is this real food.” So it was with some relief that I greeted the new book by Adria entitled The Family Meal: Home cooking with Ferran Adria (Phaidon $39.95). Not only is it affordable, but the 31 meals (93 recipes) are inspired by ordinary meals eaten by the staff at El Bulli.  Every evening at 6pm, Adria’s team would stop what they were doing to sit down together to a three-course dinner they called “the family meal.” It was a time of day extremely important to Adria, a moment when he and his team could sit down and gather themselves, just as a sit-down dinner together in the evening is important for all families, large or small. “There are many recipe books, but few based on meals,” he says.  “People often pick up a cookbook at home, but have no idea how to combine the recipes into a sensible meal. This book aims to help by providing meals that have been thought out in their entirety.” Adria believes the secret of good cooking is organisation and shows how easy it can be, with a little preparation, to create no fuss, delicious meals at home. At our lunch at Bilson’s Restaurant (sadly now defunct due to bankruptcy)   ex- El Bulli chef, Diego Munoz, prepared Meal 21 for us: Gazpacho, Black Rice with Cuttlefish and Bread with chocolate and olive oil. They were all absolutely delicious, redolent with flavour and very more-ish. Mind you, I’d query whether the main course can be done easily in an hour at home, especially if you don’t happen to have cuttlefish or cuttlefish ink on hand. However the simplicity of the gazpacho and the chocolate bread dessert (which Adria ate as a snack when he was a boy) well and truly make up for its complexity. Step-by-step photos of each dish are also very helpful – it’s like having Adria by your side in your own kitchen.