Influx

The other night on the Travel Channel, Anthony Bourdain profiled Ferran Adria, the godfather of molecular gastronomy.

Adria’s restaurant, El Bulli, two hours north of Barcelona serves some of the most innovative food in the world including; pea ravioli without the ravioli, spaghetti made from parmesan, parmesan and ice cream sandwiches, apple caviar, carrot and tangerine foam, etc

Influx first wrote about molecular gastronomy in April of 2005.

Adria has been criticized by many for being a showman without substance and for breaking the rules just for the sake of it. However, the program showed that there is a lot more to Adria than meets the eye and in fact, Adria can teach brands a few things.

So what are some of Adria’s rules that can be applied to brands?

1. Don’t be afraid to challenge convention.- Adria has zagged in a completely different direction to the rest of the food and restaurant business and in so doing has created his own category and own rules.

2. Treat innovation seriously.- Adria could have stuck to a few menu items and the restaurant still would have been interesting enough to attract customers. However, molecular gastronomy, never gets old and it creates the framework for constant invention. You want to see what else you can do. El Bulli is one of the only restaurants in the world with its own lab. New menus are developed in the lab.

3. Collaborate with others. Adria doesn’t do this alone, the creation of new menu items is a complex process that involves other chefs, a chemist and an industrial designer. They work from flavor hunches and experiment till they get it right.

4. Understand that its all about the experience. Adria knows that at a time when everyone’s emotions are heightened, you need to create something special and memorable. Adria doesn’t just play with the senses he completely re-arranges them.

For those who are interested, there’s a $600 El Bulli cookbook.

Any produce boards or food giants looking to re-energize and re-imagine their offerings would be well advised to give Ferran Adria a call.

From Influx’s in-exhaustive research, it appears that Senor Adria has already started working with food companies, one we discovered is Lay’s potato chips