Colman Andrews - A 35-course El Bulli tasting menu inspires a groundbreaking musical work.
Ferran Adrià, whose 50-seat restaurant on a narrow coastal road in Catalonia has been called the best in the world, stood on a stage in Paris on June 11 and addressed the audience in heavily accented French... 

This was not some gastronomic seminar or culinary demonstration, however; the stage was that of the elegant Salle Pleyel, one of the French capital’s most famous concert halls, and Adrià was flanked by a composer and a conductor, with a full complement of musicians poised for action in the background. The occasion was the world premiere of Bruno Mantovani’s Le livre des illusions (hommage à Ferran Adrià) (The Book of Illusions: Homage to Ferran Adrià)—a 29-minute work inspired by a 35-course tasting menu the young French-born composer had enjoyed in 2007 at Adrià’s three-star establishment, El Bulli. “I wrote this work for a thousand reasons,” Mantovani told me before the performance. “I’m absolutely mad for gastronomy, to begin with. And the worlds of music and food seem to me intimately connected, in the immediacy with which both are experienced and the way they can challenge the senses. And remember that musicians often use food metaphors when they speak of their own work—‘spicy’ harmony, ‘acid’ orchestration, and so on. When I ate at El Bulli, I thought of my meal at once in musical terms and made notes about everything I ate. I had written a piece earlier inspired by a wine tasting, but this was the first time I had used food.” ...
Read more