It was as if a rock star had swung into town. Camera-toting crowds usually reserved for celebrity superstars swarmed Spanish chef Ferran Adria at the Capella resort in Sentosa Island, Singapore, where he was scheduled to speak and introduce A Day At El Bulli, a documentary about his famed restaurant, El Bulli (pronounced el booley).
Adria was undoubtedly the top draw at the 14th World Gourmet Summit (WGS) last month – an international gastronomic extravaganza to showcase the work and innovations of some of the world’s top chefs.
Hailed the “best chef in the world” – a title he humbly rejects, claiming “there is no such thing” – Adria is arguably the renaissance man of haute cuisine. But his diminutive frame and his affable personality belie a fierce creative energy that seems insatiable.
Having first rocked the culinary world in 1988 with a soda siphon which he used to create cappuccino-like foam that tasted of carrot, beetroot and even popcorn, Adria has continued to mystify the world with his revolutionary creations – Parmesan snow, golden caviar beads made of olive oil, a perfect white egg shell made from coconut milk.