OP: The New Cuisine of Catalonia - Authentic Spanish Recipes for Home Cooking & Gourmet Dining

Product Description

Droemer Knaur, 1995. Hardcover. Very Good in Very Good jacket. Signed.

In 1993 we were just beginning to hear about the Spanish culinary revolution, and along with the likes of Arzak, Subijana, and Santamaria, the name Ferran Adrià was coming up frequently. Then El Bulli (not yet rebranded as elBulli) released its first cookbook. The fact that this book proclaims itself a Pandora's box seems remarkably prescient.

People who only know Adrià's cuisine from the late 1990s onward, when relentless technical innovation sometimes seemed to be its defining characteristic, may be surprised to see how the cooking on which the chef built his initial renown was focused on an approach to flavor and ingredients that more closely resembles culinary trends today.

This isn't to say that his later creative development was not presaged here. But foams, alginate, and siphons aside, Adrià's role in the rescue of Spanish cuisine from the lingering doldrums of Franco-era conservatism was driven in part by anticipating changes that were about to take place throughout the culinary world.

There was never an English-language edition of this book: it was only released in Catalan, Spanish, German, and Japanese—and the printings were small.