Picasso of Food

How does the best chef in the world create the ideas behind his creations? Barcelona’s Chef Ferran Adria, the single most important chef responsible for modernist cuisine -often called molecular gastronomy- will be in town this Monday morning, 9-11am at MOCA for an utterly unique symposium with a panel of international experts on the history of food and the science and technology behind the methods used to achieve important innovations. The Institute for the Science of Origins has gathered these eminent folks together as a complement to the current MOCA exhibit “Notes on Creativity,” which showcases drawings, paintings, devices and other artifacts of Adria’s creative process, which emphasizes not only flavors but color, form, whimsy, and many other elements that share as much or more with fine art as they do with lunch. A native Catalan often called the “Picasso of food” Adria was chef at ElBulli (named for the owner’s French Bulldog), which for 10 years was widely regarded as the best restaurant in the world. Hopeful foodies would try for a reservation during a single afternoon every year to earn a place at the table for the following year’s 6-month season. There was only space for 8,000; 2 million would apply. Adria closed the restaurant at the peak of its notoriety in 2012 and has turned it into a center for culinary creativity due to open in 2015. The event, “FOOD! Origins, Innovation, Imagination” with Chef Ferran Adria takes place Monday November 17, from 9 to 11am at MOCA Clevland. Sponsored by the Institute for the Science of Origins, a joint project of Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and ideastream. For tickets call 216-368-2090 or www.case.edu/origins or email [email protected]