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

New BBC Series Tells the Story of Selfridge London's Legendary Merchant

Well, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has done it again. This time their winning series is Mr. Selfridge, the story of the rise and fall of Harry Gordon Selfridge, American merchant extraordinaire.

And although Selfridge began his career in Chicago at Marshall Field, it was in London that he won lasting fame as the founder of Selfridges Department Store. Within its elegant walls, he redefined the shopping experience from one of merely purchasing an item into an exciting and singular experience.

He was the first to connect celebrities to in-store product promotion. He created such lasting marketing phrases as “Only XX days left ‘til Christmas” and “The customer is always right”. He blended dining, relaxation and style into a new form of client interaction that still affects our world today.

When a restaurant trains their wait staff to be informative rather than aggressive, they can thank Selfridge for establishing that prescient.  When diners are aware of (and expecting to enjoy) exotic ingredients from around the world, again it was Selfridge who first suggested such items should be offered to shoppers along with the traditionally expected.

Based on Lindy Woodhead’s book, Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge (not excluding, of course, Selfridge’s own text, The Romance of Commerce), the new series traces Selfridge raise to the heights of Edwardian society (complete with his very own castle) to the sadder days of the Great Depression and World War II.

Definitely a must-watch series, Mr. Selfridge offers a glimpse into the mind of a brilliant, yet very human, man whose courage and creativity still inspires us today, right down to the phrase, “How may we serve you?”

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Ferran Wine Collection to Be Going Going Gone at Sotheby's April Auctions

For 50 years the famed Spanish restaurant, elBulli, has collected over 8,000 bottles of legendary wines. 

Now, on April 3th in Hong Kong and later on April 26^th in New York City, Sotheby’s will be auctioning them all off in support of Ferran Adrià’s elBulli Foundation, a center to be opened soon by famous chef in Barcelona to study the creative process both in AND out of the kitchen.

Among the wines offered are three bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti 1990, estimated at $32,500 to $47,500.  The largest selection of wines (more than 2,000 bottles) will be from Spain, featuring important vintages from Pingus, Clos Erasmus and Clos Mogador. Their estimated value ranges from $200,000 to $300,000.

Wine buyers can also look forward to 415 bottles of Rhone from Chateau de Beaucastel, more than 1,400 bottles of red Burgundy, more than 1,000 bottles of white wine and a large collection of all five first-growth Bordeaux vineyards.

But just in case multi-thousand dollars bottles of wine are not in your personal culinary budget, additional elBulli kitchen items will also be on the auction block.

Also available to the top bidder (starting at $1,000) is a white chef’s jacket signed by Ferran as well as a set of knives and signed siphon (both also starting at $1,000).

If these prices seem high, consider the cause that will benefit. The elBulli Foundation is a unique research center focused on creativity.

And as we all know, true creativity is both priceless and, sadly, rare. Bravo Ferran! May the discoveries you find at the Foundation inspire us all!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Javier Bardem Might Play Ferran in New Food Film

Producer Philippe Rousselet wants Javier Bardem to play Ferran Adrià in the long-awaited elBulli film. Rousselet told the Hollywood Reporter that the actor is his "obvious first choice." 

The film is based on the book The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which chronicles life behind the scenes in the avant-garde elBulli kitchen. 

Adrià is involved with the production as "an on-set advisor." He has described the film as The Social Network meets Ratatouille. 

Rousselet is now calling it "The Breakfast Club meets Dead Poets Society meets The Social Network", i.e., less rats, more angst and lots of self-discovery for hard working young chefs. 

Should be good - very good! What would your casting choices be?

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013