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

How Coffee Helped Invent the Modern Internet

Today is National Coffee Appreciation Day in the U.S. And less you think this is only a recent marketing promotion, it’s a little known story that coffee, yes coffee, helped create the Internet.

And that’s something we can all celebrate for who in the Industry could get through the day without Internet and its many applications.

Here are the little known details of how coffee promoted the existence of the Internet. Back in 1991, some of Britain’s brightest minds were working at Cambridge University searching out the early secrets of the computer computations.

Their work there was a natural extension of the initial discoveries done at the nearby Bletchley Park where, during World War II, English scientists developed the first computer prototypes to decode the secret messages sent by Germany on their Enigma and Lorenz machines.

The scientists gathered at Cambridge eagerly continued their work, but their physical setting was not as grand as that of Bletchley Park.

The seven story building that served as their research center had no elevator and, to make matters worse, ONE coffee pot for the WHOLE building.

Since scientists as a group drink more coffee during the day than any other professional group, this was a huge problem.  Each scientist there experienced going for a cup of hopefully-inspiring coffee only to find, after going down several flights of stairs, that the lone coffee pot on the first floor was empty!

They solved this problem by inventing the very first webcam, which transferred a streaming image of the coffee pot to their desk computer screen.

Now every trip down to the coffee machine meant returning with a full cup! Heaven! Progress! Science! Technology!

So when chefs today work with newest cutting edge techniques today, be they Ferran or a young chef in training at the C.I.A., they are in good company with the best – starting with all those talented scientists of the 1990s at Cambridge University, who invented the webcam that we all enjoy today, just to get a cup of hot coffee! Many thanks gentlemen!

Post Note: September 30, 2010: As the Internet grew in fame, two million plus people had logged on by 2001 to view the Cambridge coffee pot. When the scientists moved to their new computer center that year, they put the legendary coffee pot up for sale on the then new website eBay. Astoundingly the coffee pot sold for 3,350 English pounds or $5224.33 US dollars to the German online firm of Speigel.  Not bad, no for an old coffee pot.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Complete Story Matters When It Comes to Success in the Hospitality Industry

Today’s customer requires far more than a dated features-and-benefits approach when it comes to securing their repeat loyalty.

We now live in a world of transparency where a depth of tradition matters as much as contemporary innovation. Indeed, one empowers the other, blending the strengthening heritage of the past with the thrill of the new.

Successful chefs, such as Guy Savoy, are well aware of the motivating power of an enriched story. Indeed, they take this expanded legacy of service and style with them as travel. As a result, today the hospitality industry reaches far beyond the kitchen into the everyday experience of diners.

British Airways has also embraced the value of the enhanced story in their new marketing campaign. It provides an excellent sample of blending the past with the present while looking to the better future.

Today’s leading chefs increasing use this model to expand their success while they embrace the growing professional responsibly of their enhanced visibility as expressed at the 2nd Summit of the International Advisory Board of the Basque Culinary Center hosted in Lima, Peru this year.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Thoughtful Change Defines Rapoport’s First Bon Appetit Cover

The May copy of Bon Appetit is a must-see/must-read issue for all those who follow trend development in the culinary industry. The magazine’s new editor-in-chief, Adam Rapoport, chose a simple bowl of pasta al pomodoro garnished with grated parmesan as the front cover image.  

It’s a classic dish but not a cutting edge selection such as one might expect from, say, Ferran. But be assured that Rapoport knows what he’s doing and why. After all, he worked at GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) before being selected by Condé Nast, the parent owners of the Bon Appetit publication. And no one can say that the prestigious GQ isn’t hip to all that’s hot.

Rapoport recently explained over breakfast in mid-Manhattan that startlingly fast change has never been his goal. With over 1.5 million readers, the magazine’s new directing editor's principal objective is to maintain and then to expand subscriptions through an in depth understanding of contemporary trends and interests.

An experienced hand at developmental design, Rapoport quickly repeated lessons learned at GQ that one’s supportive staff can make or break even the most gifted as no one truly creates successfully in isolation.  Soon such talented and experienced individuals as Christine Muhlke, formerly from The New York Times Magazine, were working beside him.

The first (and probably most pressing) problem facing Rapoport and his staff is how to stand out among the many spin-off magazines from the crowded field of T.V.'s celebrity chef shows. That other leading food magazine, Food & Wine, has very successfully co-branded with the Bravo Chanel “Top Chef” programing. And no one can miss Rachael Ray’s or Martha Stewart ‘s magazines at the grocery check-out stands, complete with nearly endless tie-ins to their daily television broadcasts.

So what’s Rapoport to do? In short, keep the best and then add the rest. For Bon Appetit, Rapoport believes that the positive starting point is the magazine's library of outstanding recipes, all tested and copyrighted. Add solid culinary technique, all captured in stunning photography that both defines and excites.

But Rapoport wants more. He wants snap and pop while always bringing the reader into the experience.  Story titles will become more intriguing with such lead lines as “How to Drink Like an Italian,” and “The Real Baconator.” Writers (and photographers) will abandon the standard studio stillife shoot and move out onto location, bringing back not just the story but also the authentic “feeling” of cuisine and culture.

Will there be celebrities? Yes, but one’s that are truly interested in cuisine, not just those using all matters food and wine to promote their image (and their bank account). The New York Post is currently reporting that the next issue will feature Gwyneth Paltrow. One can only hope-hope-hope they are right.

Go for it Rapoport!  We’re all rooting for you. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Dror Benshetrit’s QuaDror Creates New Tables, Chairs and Lightning for Hotels and Restaurants

Chef Ferran Adria isn’t the only innovator changing the world of dining. Based in New York City, Dror Benshetrit is a new leading designer whose reconceptualization of space and form is changing the very structure of restaurant furniture from floor to ceiling. 

Though now represented by New York’s prestigious Culture & Commerce Inc., Dror grew up in Israel where his father was a mechanic and his mother was a midwife and make-up artist. Initially Dror was interested by art, inspired by such artists as Paul Gauguin and Rodin.

Yet always nagging at him as he studied art was a growing interest in physics and abstract geometry. His expanding interest led him to explore such giants of design as Noguchi, Achille Castiglioni and Buckminster Fuller.

In 2006, after completing his studies at the Eindhoven Design Academy in Holland, Dror began experimenting with new shapes which he generated through innovative “space truss geometry”. The resulting discovery, later entitled and patented as the “QuaDror”, was a unit made from four identical L-shaped pieces.

When combined, the resulting collapsible system allowed for rapid assembly and a transition from closed and flat to open and self-standing.  When applied to the furnishings of a restaurant or hotel, new compact and easily stored items could be created.

Working with the legendary Swarovski Crystal firm of Austria, Dror designed a stunning new chandelier, ideal for floor or table lighting.  It is truly a piece of art brought forward into the functionality of a grand gala – an elegance light source made as real as a sparkling champagne glass. Just imagine its beauty if raised overhead to the ceiling of a grand ballroom.

Using the same QuaDror form, banquet tables equally can now change their heavy decades-old appearance. By enlarging Dror’s innovative truss form, two base units or "sawhorses" can easily be opened and topped with a transparent top, making traditional table linen unnecessary as traditional banquet tables can now become a stunning visual tour de force.

But Dror goes still further. He and his staff have even recreated the basic guest chair.  By thinking outside the box, they have crafted a "pick chair" that folds from the floor to become hanging wall art when not in use.    

Still a young designer, Dror has a brilliant and amazing future ahead of him as does our industry when the traditions of the past are honored and changed by all that’s new, creative, useful and beautiful. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011