Food for Thought. Thought for Food: A Reflection on the Creative Universe of Ferran Adrià.
A reflection on Ferran Adrià’s participation in Documenta 12, edited by Vicente Todolí, director of the Tate Modern in London, and Richard Hamilton, painter and father of pop-art. Food for Thought brings together the testimony, debates, writings and round table discussions of artists, chefs, art critics and gallerists. It presents the voices of renowned figures from the worlds of art and cooking, in debates which set out to open the boundaries between cooking and art. This volume details Ferran Adrià’s participation in Documenta 12 and explores the repercussions that the chef’s immersion in the world of art continues to provoke. In addition, the book gathers together, in an orderly and stimulating manner, the most highly regarded and widely read theoretical texts on the philosophy of Adrià’s restaurant, elBulli, which was awarded 3 Michelin stars and recognised as the best restaurant in the world on five occasions by the magazine, Restaurant.
Pages long: 343
Book size: 25×18 cm
Weight: 1,380 gr
Content
This work details Ferran Adrià’s participation in Documenta and explores the repercussions that the chef’s immersion in the world of art continues to provoke. In addition, the book gathers together, in an orderly and stimulating manner, the most highly regarded and widely read theoretical texts on the philosophy of Adrià’s restaurant, elBulli, which was awarded 3 Michelin stars and recognised as the best restaurant in the world on five occasions by the magazine, Restaurant.
Origin and characteristics of the book
Following an informal conversation between Richard Hamilton, Vicente Todolí and Ferran Adrià, the idea came up of recording the chef’s visit to Documenta 12. Food for Thought. Thought for Food seeks to decipher the creative processes of this unique gastronomic-artistic project. Besides telling the story of Documenta, the book interrogates the limits of creativity, language, art and their different means of expression. Food for Thought also presents the testimony of the guests who attended the elBulli “Documenta table” every day during the course of the exhibition, as well as the opinions of renowned figures from the world of art and cooking who took part in two round table discussions in an attempt to open the boundaries between cooking and art. In addition, the volume gathers together, in an orderly and stimulating manner, the most highly regarded and widely read theoretical texts on the “philosophy” of elBulli and its chef.
This volume is edited by Richard Hamilton and Vicente Todolí, who take charge of designing the concept of the book and deciding its contents. Graphic design is by Fernando Gutiérrez, whilst Cristina Giménez is responsible for the editorial coordination.
The front cover illustration of Ferran Adrià is by Matt Groening. The producer James L. Brooks was so fascinated by his experience of eating at elBulli that he asked Matt Groening to make portraits of both Ferran Adrià and Juli Soler, which he gave them as a gift. This is how Matt Groening’s cartoon illustration of Ferran Adrià ended up on the cover of this publication.
