El Bulli | The Rambling Epicure

French Food Fact: What’s a Cromesquis?

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, March 29, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Cromesquis are back in fashion as an hors d’oeuvre. They are made with a salpicon wrapped in pig’s caul or slices of salt pork, then dipped in batter and deep-fried to make a croquette.

Contemporary chefs like to make the salpicon a little runny so that when you bite into the croquette, the liquid squirts into your mouth. I first ate the contemporary version of cromesquis at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli about 12 or 13 years ago.

Note: A salpicon consists of ingredients that are diced and bound with a sauce.

Ferran Adrià: La Fundación El Bulli will be a “Wikipedia” of haute cuisine

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Ferran Adrià promises that the La Fundación El Bulli exhibition will cover the entire evolution of what was for 5 years the best restaurant in the world, El Bulli, in Roses in the Catalonia region of Spain. The foundation will serve as an encyclopedia similar to Wikipedia, in that it will cover all the groundbreaking techniques of El Bulli, now closed, as well as of haute cuisine around the world, all free of charge.

Link: Informe21

Ferran and Albert Adrià to “perform” cocktails

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, October 20, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

The Guardian says Ferran and Albert Adrià, the culinary visionaries of El Bulli, will be performing the superstar restaurant’s cocktails at Tickets in Barcelona, paired with a “greatest hits collection” of food: Parmesan ice cream, Iberian ham “airbag-uette,” mango leaves with marigold, yogurt pistachulines, and steamed brioche with mozzarella. So what next, Ferran?

Click here to watch the video.

How to build a recipe: a video by Grant Achatz, chef of Alinea

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, August 10, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

I always say to build a recipe you have to know how to think with your tastebuds. Here’s a video with a thorough explanation of the process by one of the best in the world: Grant Achatz, chef at Alinea in Chicago, Illinois, in the U.S. He approaches it in an intuitive, yet logical manner. I strongly advise up-and-coming chefs to watch this. It holds lessons for life.

Click here to watch video.

Image courtesy of Caroline. Grant Achatz in center.

News Flash: First reaction to Ell Bulli not being in San Pelligrino’s Top 50 Restaurants in the World

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, April 18, 2011 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

So El Bulli is not in the top 50. People’s tastes change. That doesn’t make El Bulli bad; it was not included in the list simply because it is closing.

I’ll always remember that magic moment, so many years ago, when I first drove over the dirt track in the hills above Rosas to get to this little bistrot Michel Trama had told me about. I was enthralled, and that moment will remain with me forever. My tastes change, all our tastes change. We have moved on, going more toward a regional, traditional cuisine, much in the spirit of Slow Food, more in sync with the world’s needs, but that magic moment will always remain.