The Family Meal by Ferran Adria -- A Review

The Family Meal -- is a remarkable look into the mind of the world’s most influential Chef and his legendary (now closed) restaurant. The chef, Ferran Adria, and the restaurant, El Bulli, are icons of the modern food world. Both the man and his restaurant are closely associated with the cutting edge of cuisine also know as -- molecular gastronomy. At its essence, this style of cooking is merely an extension of what great chefs and good cooks have always done -- cook ingredients in such a way that enhances their natural characteristics and flavors. The devotees of molecular gastronomy are just applying another level of technology, and chemistry and physics, to the process. By bringing new technology and a post-modernist sensibility to cooking Adria and a range of other Spanish chefs have created an entirely new genre of cooking.

New technology in the kitchen sounds daunting to the home chef -- it did to me. However, that is not what The Family Meal is about. The title refers not to Adria’s wife and children but rather to his work family -- the staff at El Bulli. Like most fine restaurants El Bulli prepared two types of meals -- extravagances for its patrons, many who waited upwards for a year for a table, and meals for the staff of seventy employed to produce that Michelin starred fare.

Staff meal, in any resturant is more than just feeding employees. It is building community, creating connection and the communication organizational values. This book serves as a document of that process

The format of The Family Meal is different than the typical cookbook. Recipes are organized by meal/menu of which there are thirty-one. Each menu consists of an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. What really differentiates this cookbook from others is that the recipes are given in four different sizes--for two, six, twenty and seventy. This combined with the instructions, which are both written in narrative and illustrated with informative and easy to understand photographs set this book apart. While it is unlikely that the home chef will ever be called upon to cook for seventy -- although when I catered my own wedding reception 21 years ago this feature could have been put to use -- the recipes for twenty and two have both come in very handy. In addition to the menu driven format The Family Meal includes a series of “basic recipes” of stocks and sauces that are also proportioned for large and small quantities. This makes stock piling the raw materials for superior meals easy and, in fact, fun. Transforming my kitchen into a commercial(-ish) facility is, on occasion fun. The most recent result -- a portion of Romesco sauce is portioned and sitting in my freezer as I write.

The recipes themselves exhibit only a tiny portion of the flash of El Bulli food, in the appearance of foams made by using a nitrogen whip cream dispenser. What these recipes are, is good, flavorful and modern. Influences range from Spain to Italy to Japan and back again. Yes, the first dinner menu features of all things a burger. All the dinners I have tried to date have been exemplary -- most notable the Osso Bucco and the Chicken Wings with Mushrooms. The only problems I have encountered are with the desserts. Some of the measurements in these recipes seem off and I have had less success--although I am not a great dessert cook. These measurement problems could have been straightened out by including an errata sheet from the publisher and are probably a result of converting from metric.

Needless to say, The Family Menu is a cookbook that anyone interested in modern gastronomy will want and is certainly worth searching out. It might, despite the illustrated instructions, make a frustrating cookbook for the beginner -- as a certain familiarity with cooking technique is assumed. Should you posses a basic knowledge of cooking and want a series of recipes that are flavorful, distinctive and downright delicious I heartily recommend The Family Meal.