{"id":2312,"date":"2014-11-05T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T08:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2014-11-05T08:02:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T08:02:18","slug":"nikhil-agarwal-interviews-albert-adria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/?p=2312","title":{"rendered":"Nikhil Agarwal interviews Albert Adria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikhil interviews Albert Adria,\u00a0one of the most acclaimed chefs in the world and brother of Ferran at their new restaurant- Tickets.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was in Barcelona recently, as a pit stop after a visit to Priorat, a truly beautiful\u00a0wine region in Spain not too far from the city. This region produces beautiful wines\u00a0that are gaining popularity around the world, they are also some of Spain\u2019s most\u00a0expensive wine offerings. While in Barcelona I was intent to eat at Tickets which\u00a0is the famed brothers – Ferran and Albert Adria\u2019s new restaurant after closing the\u00a0legendary and path breaking El Bulli.<\/p>\n

El Bulli was considered until very recently the best restaurant in the world but\u00a0perhaps only not the best anymore because the brothers closed the restaurant for\u00a0good. I tugged and pulled, bullied and pleaded and succeeded in \u00a0getting myself a\u00a0reservation at Tickets. This restaurant normally has a two month plus waiting list\u00a0and to add to my good fortune, as a bonus, I got to spend time with Chef Albert\u00a0Adria himself.<\/p>\n

What was the Idea behind Tickets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We wanted to create a traditional yet sophisticated take on the regular Spanish\u00a0tapas bar. To take the concept of the everyday tapas bar and make it more fine\u00a0dining yet retaining the casualness of a tapas bar.<\/p>\n

Do you plan to open any restaurants outside of Barcelona?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have a lot of opportunities today to open restaurants all over the world but at\u00a0the moment we do not want to. We may open a restaurant in London. We don\u2019t\u00a0have the team to open up more restaurants.<\/p>\n

Your fascination with food started with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started working in the kitchen when I was 15 years old, I started working in the\u00a0kitchen only because I needed to work but soon I fell in love with food and the\u00a0kitchen.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the secret to opening amazing restaurants?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we closed El Bulli, we were had a lot of experience and a great team.\u00a0This team allows us to take all the ideas that we have in our minds and make it a\u00a0reality. We understand what people want.<\/p>\n

Why did you close El Bulli ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

El Bulli was a train running at a very high speed and it was like we had to keep\u00a0feeding the train to ensure that it stayed at that speed. At the end we were just\u00a0tired.<\/p>\n

This train allowed us to learn a lot, we became known around the world and it is\u00a0the best moments in my life and the life of Ferran. We are the same team but we\u00a0are older and with families, it was time to move on. We also wanted to close El\u00a0Bulli at its peak.<\/p>\n

Do you have the same ways of thinking with Ferran ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We speak the same language but have different personalities. We discuss a lot\u00a0and find middle ground.<\/p>\n

In which direction is Spanish gastronomy going?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is a contradiction, on one hand we want to be avant- garde and on the other we\u00a0want to hold onto tradition.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new in Spanish cuisine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is not easy to find something new now but perhaps we can see what we can\u00a0bring back from history. Things have changed; the world is a much smaller place\u00a0now. Now I can get ingredients from India, South America and Africa for example.\u00a0Thanks to the internet I can see the menu\u2019s of restaurants all over the world.\u00a0Information is easy and to take new directions in food or borrow from different\u00a0cultures is on our fingertips.<\/p>\n

Do you believe in using ingredients from all over the world ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tickets is 95% Spanish and besides a few things here or there we are proud to\u00a0showcase Catalan cuisine using the finest local ingredients.<\/p>\n

Could you explain Molecular Gastronomy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately I cannot explain it. I was talking to a journalist the first time we used\u00a0nitrogen and somehow we got tagged as purveyors of molecular gastronomy.\u00a0We wrote a letter to the entire media saying that we do not believe in molecular\u00a0gastronomy, all we believe is in a good kitchen and a bad kitchen. The customer\u00a0is not interested in molecular gastronomy. I may give him a variation of an olive\u00a0but if he doesn\u2019t like the taste of that olive we have failed. At the end every cuisine\u00a0of the world depends on only one thing, the quality of the ingredient.<\/p>\n

To make a great olive recipe you need to ensure you have the best olives, we\u00a0make sure we get the best and that\u2019s it. For the customer, the experience is just 2\u00a0seconds; we only have those 2 seconds to give them a burst of flavours.<\/p>\n

We serve customers from around the world, which is difficult, 50 % of our\u00a0customers are foreigners, we want to make a menu for everybody. So we cannot\u00a0say that we do or understand what molecular gastronomy is.<\/p>\n

When I was on my way to Tickets I was excited, finally I was going to have\u00a0the Adria experience. Do you realize the level of impact you have had on\u00a0people who love food?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The entire team knows that there are people waiting to have dinner or lunch at our\u00a0restaurant and we take this responsibility very seriously. We want to make sure\u00a0that we do the best with every lunch or dinner seating.<\/p>\n

What is the reason behind calling the restaurant Tickets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The area where Tickets is located was like Broadway so we called it Tickets. The\u00a0doors are like a cinema door. You come in for a show, for an experience.<\/p>\n

You use emotion in food, my ice cream that I ordered was served in a way\u00a0that reminded me of my childhood. ( It was served by someone riding an\u00a0icecream cart to my table and ringing the cycle bell to inform me that it had\u00a0arrived).<\/strong><\/p>\n

For us the most important thing is the food. We can play with emotion, we can\u00a0create flash backs to when make people were young, but in the end the quality\u00a0of the food is the most important to me. And really that\u2019s all. Everything else,\u00a0emotion, changing shapes and sizes is important but not as important as the food.\u00a0We should not only do play food but also serious food. I am serious when I am\u00a0fooling around with food.<\/p>\n

As told to Nikhil Agarwal, Director & Sommelier – All Things Nice<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nikhil interviews Albert Adria,\u00a0one of the most acclaimed chefs in the world and brother of Ferran at their new restaurant- Tickets. I was in Barcelona recently, as a pit stop after a visit to Priorat, a truly beautiful\u00a0wine region in Spain not too far from the city. This region produces beautiful wines\u00a0that are gaining popularity … Continue reading Nikhil Agarwal interviews Albert Adria<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[764,17,768,774,769,778,765,773,775,776,64,779,777,130,780,772,770,767,766,771],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-blog","tag-alber-adria","tag-all-things-nice","tag-barcelona","tag-catalan-cuisine","tag-el-bulli","tag-emotion-and-food","tag-ferran","tag-ingredients-from-all-over-the-world","tag-local-ingredients","tag-molecular-gastronomy","tag-nikhil-agarwal","tag-priorat","tag-quality-of-the-ingredient","tag-sommelier","tag-spain","tag-spanish-cuisine","tag-spanish-gastronomy","tag-spanish-tapas-bar","tag-tickets-restaurant","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2316,"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/2316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allthingsnice.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}