The third area of the exhibition explores ‘cooking as a language’. It analyses the elements involved in the gastronomic process, from the moment of cooking to the moment the food is tasted by the diner.

A practical example of this codification can be seen in a flow chart, which allows us to understand the complexity of a recipe. Here, elBulli’s 1995 recipe for Chicken curry is broken down to reveal all the culinary secrets used in its preparation.

In short, cooking is a language that conveys knowledge, emotions and feelings, and rationalisation. And this is achieved through tasting.

This installation takes this language to its conceptual limits in order to understand the complexity that lies behind what we refer to as ‘cooking’. To develop a language, you first need an alphabet, and in cooking it consists of the combination of the different elements involved in the gastronomic process: products, tools, techniques, concepts and intermediate preparations, which come together to give shape to the dishes.

It is a universal alphabet that can be used in any type of cooking. It is embodied in the recipes, one of the first algorithms created by humans. Recipes have become an essential resource that allows us to cook all the dishes we enjoy to taste with absolute precision.