This is Albert Adria - co-owner and Pastry Chef of El Bulli - holding a sugar bubble filled with sesame oil. At the restaurant, they're done with a deliciously nutty - and wildly expensive - Austrian pumpkin seed oil.
I wrote a piece for the Chicago Tribune about Albert's recent, rare, hands-on classes where he showed some of the latest dishes to a handful of professional pastry chefs - and a few hardcore home cooks. The article - "Pioneering Pastry Chef Shares a Few Secrets" - was published in yesterday's paper - and thank you to Susan in Hong Kong for first spotting it in the online edition.
Yes, I snuck back to Chicago last month for a quick visit - and sat in on Albert's two intensive three-day classes at the French Pastry School - an eye-popping $825 each. A big shout-out to Chad, Daniel, Tara, Meredith, William, Ryan, Eric, Patty, Nghi, Lauren, Sally, Lisa, and all the other cool kids I met in class.
Albert taught Artistic Plated Desserts - which he also did last November - and El Bulli Petit Fours and Mignardises. The Bullimen include these bite-sized treats in the category they call Morphings. They're the end of the meal equivalent to amuses-bouches - which in Bulli nomenclature are Snacks.
Currently the restaurant serves a total of seven Morphings - but you're not guaranteed to taste all of them. How many you get depends on your server and you. If it looks to your server like you want to eat and run, then you might only get one. If you're kicking back, ordering after-dinner drinks, lighting up cigars, etc. then you'll likely get all seven. So here's the El Bulli Tip of the Day - if you want all seven Morphings, sit back, relax, and tell your server to Bring-It-On.
And as I mention in the article - in bigger-than-Harry-Potter news - the massive book and CD boxed set "El Bulli 1998-2002" will soon be published in the US for the first time. This is in fact Volume 3 - first released in November 2003 in Europe in limited quantities. The opus is scheduled to hit stores August 1st and will sell at a staggering $350. But Amazon's currently offering it for a relative rock-bottom $220.50 - including free shipping - no small change given its considerable weight and size. If you do want to order the book online, please - for the love of foam, agar-agar, and melon caviar - pretty please - with edible air on top - buy through my Amazon link right here.
Each purchase contributes to Movable Feast and is greatly appreciated - because I'm going back to El Bulli at the end of this season - and I'm taking you with me again!
