Synopses & Reviews
WHAT GOES ON BEHIND THE SCENES AT ELBULLI?
Elected best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine an unprecedented five times, elBulli is where chef Ferran Adrià’s remarkable cuisine comes to life—with dragon cocktails that make the drinker breathe smoke and caviar made from tiny spheres of olive oil. elBulli is also the object of culinary pilgrimage—millions clamor every year for a reservation at one of its tables.
Yet few people know that, behind each of the thirtyor more courses that make up a meal at elBulli, a small army of stagiaires—apprentice chefs—labor at the precise, exhausting work of executing Adrià’s astonishing vision. In The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchenat Ferran Adrià’s elBulli, Lisa Abend explores the remarkable system that Adrià uses to run his restaurant and, in the process, train the next generation of culinary stars.
Granted more access to Adrià and the elBulli kitchen than any other writer in the restaurant’s history, Abend follows thirty-five young men and women as they struggle to master the cutting-edge techniques, grueling hours, furious creativity, and interpersonal tensions that come with working at this celebrated institution. Her lively narrative captures a great cast, including a young Korean cook who camps on the doorstep of elBulli until he is allowed to work in the kitchen; an ambitious chef from one of Switzerland’s top restaurants struggling to create his own artistic vision of cuisine; and an American couple whose relationship may not withstand the unique pressures of the restaurant. What emerges is an irresistible tale of aspiring young talents caught, for good or ill, in the opportunity of a lifetime.
Taken together, their stories form a portrait of the international team that helps make a meal at elBulli so memorable. They also reveal a Ferran Adrià few ever see, one who is not only a genius chef and artist but also a boss, teacher, taskmaster, businessman, and sometimes- flawed human being. Today, food has become the focus of unprecedented attention, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentices also explores the strange evolution—in less than two decades—of a once-maligned profession into a source of celebrity.
Review
"Over the course of the last 25 years, Ferran Adrià has become both icon and iconoclast, an international bellwether for the future of food. In
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Lisa Abend gives us an illuminating new look at the most influential chef of our time through the kaleidoscopic lens of his thirty-five stagiaires. An accomplished journalist and agile storyteller, Abend immerses herself in the heat, the anxiety, and the ingenuity of this pressurized little world, bringing the characters—and the kitchen—to life. It's a fascinating glimpse into a culinary rite of passage, and the incomparable genius behind it."
--Dan Barber, Executive Chef and Co-owner of Blue Hill Farm
Review
"
The Sorcerer's Apprentices is a fascinating, well-reported, and dramatic account of life behind the lines at the world's most renowned restaurant, elBulli. Unimpeded by the language barrier that has prevented English-speaking journalists from conveying a full, clear picture of Ferran Adrià, Abend gives a sense of what his extraordinary, ground-breaking kitchen is actually like on the inside, from the vantage of the cooks. This is a worthy addition to the literature of the professional kitchen and a pleasure to read."
--Michael Ruhlman, author of Ratio and The Making of a Chef
Review
“An insightful depiction not only of the most talked-about restaurant in the world, but also of Ferran AdriÀ and a squad of young cooks who have come to him in their quest for culinary knowledge. As THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE unspools, a profound and irresistible theme emerges: any cook worth his or her salt, even a certified genius like AdriÁ, never stops learning."
--Andrew Friedman, author of Knives at Dawn
Review
“Lisa Abend’s new book reads like Harry Potteresque version of a cook’s story and gives readers the chance to enter themselves into the hidden world of cooks. Through Lisa’s book, readers can join these young people on their quest to become a chef witnessing the dreams and aspirations, the frustrations and successes, and all the drama that unfolds along the way.”
-- José Andrés, Chef of CafÉ AtlÁntico and The Bazaar, and star of the PBS show Made in Spain
Review
“Part Dali, part Einstein, part modern-day Escoffier--superchef Ferran Adrià of elBulli is one of the greatest creative minds of our time. Now Lisa Abend reveals what it's like to actually work in this genius's kitchen. Her formidable reportage, astute cultural observations, and keen eye for detail have produced a fascinating chronicle of the life-changing adventure undertaken by elBulli's lucky band of kitchen apprentices.”
--Anya von Bremzen, author of The New Spanish Table
Review
"The author provides countless descriptions of an undeniably dazzling creative process and of foods that, even on paper, have the power to delight and amuse.
A gastronomical feast and a rare chance for gourmet enthusiasts to witness the creative process behind some of the world’s most innovative cuisine." --Kirkus
Review
“Anyone interested in the very vanguard of creativity in any medium, aside from the ever-growing ranks of foodies and celebrity-chef watchers, is certain to be enchanted.”
—Booklist (starred review)
Review
“A last glimpse inside the culinary magic.”
—Entertainment Weekly
Review
“Anyone interested in the very vanguard of creativity in any medium, aside from the ever-growing ranks of foodies and celebrity-chef watchers, is certain to be enchanted.”
—Booklist (starred review)
Synopsis
Now in paperback—Kitchen Confidential meets Heat in the first behind-the-scenes portrait of the world’s most influential restaurant and the aspiring culinary geniuses who toiled to make it so exceptional. When elBulli closed its doors in 2011, it marked the passing of an institution whose patrons were drawn like pilgrims from around the world to its location in northeastern Spain. Elected best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine an unprecedented five times, elBulli was—and will be again when it reopens as a culinary think tank in 2014—the laboratory of Ferran AdriÀ, the maverick creator of molecular gastronomy. The Sorcerer’s Apprentices reveals, for the first time, the remarkable system of apprentices that AdriÀ used to run his restaurant and, in the process, train the next generation of culinary stars.
Behind each of the thirty or more courses that made up a meal at elBulli was a small army of stagiaires—young cooks who did the work of executing AdriÀ’s vision in exchange for the chance to learn at his hands. Granted unprecedented access to this guild system, Lisa Abend followed the thirty-five stagiaires of the 2009 season as they struggled to master the grueling hours, cutting-edge techniques, and interpersonal tensions that came with working at the most revered restaurant on Earth. What emerges is an irresistible tale of aspiring young talents caught, for good or ill, in the opportunity of a lifetime: creating the ultimate dining experience.
About the Author
Lisa Abend is journalist based in Madrid. For the past three years, she has been Time magazine’s correspondent in Spain, where she writes about everything from international terrorism, to climate change, to immigration, to costumed debt collectors (with, needless to say, a fair number of bullfighting stories thrown in for good measure.) As a freelancer, she has written on learning the Basque language for
The Atlantic; on volunteer bit torrent translators for
Wired; on the plight of Roma women for
Ms., on prime minister Zapatero’s republican upbringing for
The American Prospect; on the recovery of the Iberian lynx for
National Wildlife; and on the situation in Western Sahara for
The Economist.
Her real love, though, is food writing. She contributes regularly to all the major American food magazines, and has written features on a Marrakech cooking school (Bon Appetit); on culinary travels through Extremadura (Gourmet); on a collective of grandmothers in Catalonia who preserve traditional cuisine (Saveur) and on learning to love pig face (Food and Wine). Her food writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, and the Christian Science Monitor. She hosts an upcoming episode on Andalusia in the third season of PBS’ Diary of a Foodie.
In a previous life (that is, about 5 years ago) she was a professor of Spanish history at Oberlin College.