My Trip to Barcelona, Spain

1. BARCELONA, SPAIN
Architecture, Culinary Art and Sceneries
June 2009

2. CITY FACTS
Population: 4.9 millions.
Official Language: Castilian and Catalan.
Nickname: Ciutat Comtal (City of Counts or
Ciudad de Condes) or the City of Gaudi.
Known for: Commerce

3. ARCHITECTURE
The City of Gaudi

4. Antoni Gaudi
(25 June 1852–10 June 1926).
Born in Catalonia
Studies: Escola Tècnica
Superior d'Arquitectura in
Barcelona.
After five years of work, he was
awarded the title of architect in
1878. The Dean signed his
diploma and said:
"Qui sap si hem donat el
diploma a un boig o a un geni: el
temps ens ho dirà" ("Who knows
if we have given this diploma to
a nut or to a genius. Time will
tell."

5. Casa Mila (La Pedrera, The Quarry) 1906-1910
Original Owners Rosario Segimon and Pere Milà

7. Park Guell 1900-1914

9. Templo de La Sagrada Familia (Temple of the Holy Family) 1882-2026
When asked about the timeline, Gaudi said: "My client is not in a hurry."

10. A Map of Christian Symbolism

12. Culinary Art
Ferran Adria and El Bulli
Ferran Adria has been called the world's greatest chef. He
is certainly one of the most creative. Gourmet magazine
referred to Adria as "the Salvador Dali of the kitchen". His
restaurant, El Bulli, was recently named best restaurant in
the world by the prestigious Restaurant magazine.
Ferran Adria was born May 14, 1962 in L'Hospitalet de
Llobregat
2009 El Bulli, Spain
2008 El Bulli, Spain
2007 El Bulli, Spain
2006 El Bulli, Spain
2005 The Fat Duck, England, UK
2004 The French Laundry, Napa Valley, California, US
2003 The French Laundry, Napa Valley, California, US
2002 El Bulli, Spain
The World's 50 Best Restaurants is produced by Restaurant Magazine

13. Adrià, born in Barcelona 44 years
ago, is a chef. But, if you
deconstruct him the way he
deconstructs food, you discover
that he is also an artist, a
scientist, an inventor, a stage
director, a designer, a
philosopher, an anarchist and, to
a degree that some of his more
solemn admirers maybe fail to
grasp. The Guardian
Adria is the Father of Modern
Molecular Gastronomy is a scientific
discipline involving the study of physical and
chemical processes that occur in cooking. It
pertains to the mechanisms behind the
transformation of ingredients in cooking and
the social, artistic and technical components of
culinary and gastronomic phenomena in
general (from a scientific point of view).

14. “Time magazine, describes him as one of the 100
most influential people in the world.”
Deconstruction is one of the Adrià inventions
that have changed the face of gastronomy. To
understand how it works, let's look at what he does
with a classic dish of his native land, tortilla
española - Spanish omelette. First, he reduces the
old-fashioned tortilla to its three component parts:
eggs, potatoes and onions. Then he cooks each
separately. The finished product, the deconstructed
outcome, is one-part potato foam (food-foaming is
another technique Adrià has given the world), one-
part onion purée, one-part egg-white sabayon. One
isolated component is served on top of the other in
layers, and topped with crumbs of deep-fried
potatoes. The dish, minuscule, comes inside a
sherry glass. Adrià, with the playful irony that exists
in practically everything he does, names this
dish...tortilla española.

15. “More top-level chefs on sabbatical go to his
restaurant than any other restaurant in the world: that
is why those same chefs will concede that 90 per cent
of the truly innovative ideas to have emerged in
cooking since El Bulli seriously took off in the mid-
Nineties have come from Adrià and his team.”
See Link
It being virtually impossible these days to get a
table at El Bulli, people all over the world are
always asking me what it was like. I always give
the same answer. That if what you are after is
some honest-to-goodness grub, a barbecued
burger in the garden might do just as well. But this
was much more than eating. This was Gaudí's
architecture brought to the kitchen. This was the
culinary equivalent of the Cirque du Soleil,
complete with acrobats, magicians and clowns.
The Lab
Ferran Adrià is the dean of molecular
gastronomy, the Catalonian chef who uses his
kitchen laboratory for creations like liquid ravioli;
caviar made from olive oil; an elliptical olive that
is pure liquid; pine cone mousse; ravioli of
cuttlefish wrapped around coconut milk; and
Parmesan snow. They are astonishing and often
baffling technical accomplishments that have
garnered many disciples and set trends in
restaurant kitchens worldwide.

16. First Week, Second Day: The Paella

17. Paella
Barcelonesa

18. First Week, Day 5: Downtown Barcelona
Tour

26. Montjuïc
The Castell de Montjuïc largely dates from the
17th century, with 18th century additions. In
1842, the garrison (loyal to the Madrid
government) shelled parts of the city. It served
as a prison, often holding political prisoners,
until the time of General Franco. The castle
was also the site of numerous executions.

31. Last Week, to Las Cavas

32. Adeu!