El Somni Is Truly a Culinary Opera Dream Come True

For over a year now the famed Roca Brothers of Spain have been crafting a unique culinary presentation, El Somni, a culinary opera.

Their truly amazing creation is a stunning collaboration of cuisine, form, music and wonder – worthy of the esteemed name, ‘Opera’.

The universality of this 'great work' (for that is what the word ‘opera’ actually means), is reflected in the diversity of the first 12 individuals invited to experience the work.

The premiere guest list included an HIV researcher, a fellow chef, an anthropologist, an actress, a theoretical physicist, a poet, an artist, a film director, a research biologist, a conductor, a food writer and a robotics researcher.

The composition of the work is divided into 12 concepts or courses that wrap the viewing diner in The Dream that is the experience’s title translated.

The courses pay homage to the great French chef François Vatel, who killed himself in 1671 when his concept for a vital banquet that was to be served to the French King Louis XIV was destroyed by the late delivery of fresh fish from the coast.

Such was the temperament of a dedicated artist when art was an expected part of the 'noble' life.

EL SOMNI MENU

•  Prelude: Water Nymph (Vegetable soup at low temperature, sprouts, flowers and light)
• The Dream Begins (Moon)
• Space (Foams frost Indian figue) 
• Ophiucus (Electric eel)
• Under the Sea (Shrimps, plankton, and anemones, sea urchins, cockles, seawater, crustaceans)
• Garden of the Hesperides (Anarkia)
• The Courtship (Ying yang Palo Cortado oysters with garlic and white all black)
• The Carnality (Pueblano pigeon breast with mole, grilled strawberries and roses)
• Apple/Brittle (Golden apple)
• War (Royal hare roial with blood orange and beet)
• Mercy/Death (Parmentier potatoes with purple bone marrow,caviar, purple flowers and incense smoke)
• Glory (Dessert mass mother, mother dough ice cream)
• Awakening (Sweet spring)

Yet the wonder of the evening does not rest solely on the event's innovation cuisine. Expanding on the talents developed in the three brothers’ world famous restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca, these three creative chefs also collaborated with a diverse group of visual artists, including Franc Aleu, Daniel Molina, Pere Grife, and Peret, to create an experience that defies the limits of culinary classification.

After its initial premiere in Barcelona, this unique work will be hosted at 12 different locations around the world, followed by a documentary book, exhibit and finally a film by Mediapro.

If possible, do all you can to attend.  Like listening to great opera performed well for the first time, afterwards you will never view the world in quite that same way as before. And that is, truly, the definition of great art. 

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Two Legends Reign as St Regis NYC Re-installs the King Cole Bar Mural

New Yorkers are cheering as the St. Regis Hotel has now reinstalled Maxfield Parrish's famous King Cole Bar mural after a four year absence. After a century of being surrounded by smokers, the artwork has been restored to its original stunning luster. The result is like seeing the large 30 foot painting for the first time.

The restored mural now glistens with an iridescent effect that is exactly what Parrish famously created during his lifetime without equal.

Like a master chef who layers flavor on flavor to create a final culinary masterpiece, Parrish placed layers after layer of light-enhancing varnish between his individual colors to create the unique glowing effect that the staff of the Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates have so carefully reclaimed.

Art historians, as a result, consider Parrish to be in a class by himself – just like the famed King Cole Bar itself. Year after year the rich, the famous and the talented have favored this New York landmark. Most often it is the Bar’s famed Bloody Mary cocktail that everyone seems to ask for at least once (or twice).

Indeed, this esteemed cocktail was created in its final form at the King Cole by bar master Fernand, “Pete” Petiot.  And although there had been previous versions, it was at the St Regis that it was finally christened the Bloody Mary – all thanks to James A. Michener and Juanita Hall.

Prior to 1947, the Bar had served the cocktail under the name of the Red Snapper. But that year a previously unknown writer, James A. Michener, released a small book entitled, Tales of the South Pacific. Within a year this collection of revealing stories about war in the Pacific theater would win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. It would go on to be transformed into the epic musical, South Pacific, by Rogers and Hammerstein.

Enter Juanita Hall. In the Broadway production and also in the 1958 movie version, she would play a unique character entitled, yes – you guessed it, Bloody Mary. A skilled jazz singer in her own right, she made this role her own. Her haunting rendition of the song, Bali Ha’i, won her the Tony Award, the first ever presented to an African American woman. 

In one of those rare moments when a society acknowledges a major cultural change, the name of this half tomato-half vodka (plus spices) cocktail converted overnight to the Bloody Mary, the name of Juanita Hall's unforgettable character.

And so it has been called ever since. Oh, various individual people would, through the years, say they alone named the drink. Such occurances, however, seldom stem from a single source - history rarely works that way.

No perhaps, just perhaps, it was the conscience of the American people who decided to honor a book, a musical, a pivotal role – a difference, an acceptance of equality... all still presided over to this very day by ol’ King Cole in the restored mural that now glows softly behind the bar at the legendary St Regis Hotel. 

Post Note, November 21, 2013: Chef John De Lucie just finished his relaunch of the King Cole Bar and Salon. Among those present to celebrate the re-installation of Parrish's grand painting at the St. Regis Hotel were Uma Thurman and Hilary Rhoda - definitely ladies of discerning taste and style.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Hong Kong Ferran Wine Auction a Great Success

Sotheby’s has just completed their Hong Kong auction of Ferran Adrià’s wine from the world famous elBulli Restaurant. When the evening’s sales were totaled, the coffers of Ferran’s future Barcelona culinary research center were US$1.82 million richer.

The most sought after wines were in three lots of Romanée Conti wines from various years.  The Romanée Conti 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti lot fetched top dollar, commanding US$72,708 for just three bottles. 

The lot's final bid surpassed its original estimate auction value of US$33,547, certainly signaling many smiles from Sotheby’s wine staff. However, perhaps the most esteemed item auctioned off was an evening for four lucky guests with Chef Ferran Adrià himself in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. 

The bid packet consisted of a meeting with Chef Adrià at his culinary test kitchen El Bulli Taller, followed by dinner at his brother’s acclaimed tapas restaurant, Tickets La Vida Tapa.  The final winning bid for this evening of discovery and delight was an amazing US$28,451.

The funds generated by the auction will be well needed as the future elBulli Foundation is projected to cost US$7.7 million to build and another US$3.85 million annually to operate.

But Ferran need not fear. On April 26^th Sotheby’s will auction off the remaining elBulli 10,000 wines in New York City to what will surely be another recording breaking evening for wine lovers from around the world. Additionally, Spanish telecom and broadband provider Telefonica SA has signed on as a Foundation sponsor.

Ferran has also committed to prepare what are sure to be a legendary series of meals once a year for the 100 to 200 supporting Foundation members. 

The accumulated funds will result in a Foundation that, as Ferran recently told members of the press, will be "a mix of Cirque du Soleil, the Museo Dali and MIT’s media lab." Once completed, Ferran will most likely amazing the culinary world - yet once again.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Easter Dove Shaped Bread Marks a Flaming End to Lent in Florence Italy

No one, but no one, celebrate Easter like the citizens of Florence, Italy.

In a tradition that's centuries old, teams of white oxen, bedecked in flowers (after all, the word Florence literally means the “City of Flowers”) draw a massive and mysterious 30 foot wooden structure, which is over 500 years old, through the cobblestone streets.

This Easter tradition honors Pazzino de’ Pazzi, who in 1097 was the first soldier to scale the walls of Jerusalem during the First Crusade. (Hopefully in more modern times, we will be more mature as citizens of a mutually shared planet and not hurl rocks and stones at each other.) 

But in 1097, Pazzino was climbing the Holy City’s walls and was later given three fire-striking flint stones from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as a reward for his achievement, which considering their source, made them holy relics in the 11^th  century.

Being a citizen of Florence, Pazzino placed the newly acquired relics, on returning to his beloved City State, in the care of the Church, what has honored them ever since on Easter morning.

Then as now, when the tall antique tower reaches the Piazza del Duomo, a Mass Pasqua will have just been completed. With its arrival, the real fun begins in what the Florentines call the Festival of Scoppio del Carro.

A long fuse wire will have been attached from the Duomo's high altar to the elaborate wooden tower outside. A dove, symbolizing the hope for peace and harmony, is then ignited at the altar and, with fire and sparkles, shoots down the length of the Cathedral towards the outside tower.

The flaming dove then flies into the tower, which is affectionately called “the cart” by the Florentines, to the delight of thousands gathered outside. Inside the wooden structure are hidden fireworks, which then ignite and shoot off to the cheers of the citizens, Everyone is grateful that the dietary limitations of the Lenten season are finally over as the flaming dove flies back to the Cathedral altar.

And how do the Florentine citizens celebrate their new freedom to dine without restraints? Why, with a slice of Florence's famed Colomba dove shaped Colomba bread.

And while many might say, this legendary loaf is only vaguely bird-shaped, the Florentines might reply,

"Don't worry. Life, like the flaming dove of the Cathedral, shoots by all too quickly. The outlines of one’s life don't matter all that much - as long as we have the courage to truly savor the elegant contents of both the loaf and life itself!"

Happy Easter! May your life always be full of flavor!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

El Bulli Cooking in Progress Is One Amazing Film

Well, the Oscars have been awarded in Hollywood and congratulations to all. But there is one film the members of the Hospitality Industry are all waiting to see in wider release and that's El Bulli - Cooking in Progress.

If you have not had a chance to read any of the film's glowing reviews, just check out the movie's trailer and you'll run, not walk, to the showing nearest you or purchase the DVD for your permanent collection. 

Truly an inspiring film about the nature and value of creativity!

POST NOTE, February 25, 2013: It’s finally confirmed! THERE WILL BE A SECOND FERRAN MOVIE!

Vendome Pictures has just announced they are moving ahead to turn Lisa Abend’s book, The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adria's elBulli, into a new film.

The movie will focus on the drama of the young apprentice chefs going through the restaurant's famous training program. Besides Adria, the main characters will be his Chefs de Cuisine--Eduard Xatruch, Mateu Casanas, and Oriol Castro

There will also be a stunning range of stagiares: Katie Button, an American former biomedical researcher turned chef; Luke Jang, a Korean who paid his way to El Bulli by working in a slaughterhouse; Andrea Correa, a Colombian chef who gets to be Oriol's personal assistant; Roger Alcaraz, a son of Catalan goat farmers; and Gael Vuilloud, a young French chef who can't quite pick up Spanish.

But the big question is: Who will play Ferran? Abend has always thought of Johnny Depp in the central role.

And while no one can doubt his talent, for this role, he might have to gain some pounds.

But what better way to gain weight then while studying (and savoring) the cuisine for this world famous Chef and his amazingly talent staff.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013