Pyrenees Tourism - Spanish cuisine conquers the world

Spanish cuisine is the latest trend. And so it is, according to a feature published in the Sunday magazine of The New York Times that does not spare praises when describing the new, creative Spanish cuisine and its most remarkable guru: Catalan chef Ferrán Adrià.

According to the American journal, Barcelona has dethroned Paris as food capital to place itself at the forefront of experimental cuisine. Or, in a broader sense, Spanish gastronomical supremacy has displaced France as a worldwide culinary reference. The reluctance to change that has characterised French cuisine in recent years, following the boom it experienced in the 1970s with Nouvelle Cuisine, is in sharp contrast, quoting the Times, with the effervescence that presently surrounds the stoves south of the Pyrenees, particularly those in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

The New York Times points at Catalan chef Ferrán Adriá as the main responsible for this culinary revolution, and does not mince its words when praising his great talent and the significant role he has played as the leader of Spanish imaginative cuisine.
Recipes like “Vegetable Airs” and “Liquid Ravioli” are only a small example of the creative genius of this Catalan chef, whose restaurant – El Bulli, located in the town of Roses, Girona – is a peculiar culinary laboratory where new textures and flavours are invented on a daily basis and which has become a mecca for the world’s most discriminating gourmets.

However, this brilliant Catalan cook points out to the Times that his is by no means an isolated case, but rather a mere example of a whole movement that has taken over Spain, in which young chefs participate providing new techniques and concepts to make of cooking a true art form in continuous process of renovation.
This trend will, beyond a doubt, keep Spain at the centre of attention internationally for years to come.