The legendary elBulli has passed into history. It is almost four years since the last meal was served there. With elBulli gone, its Vanguardist style of cooking has become largely overshadowed by the New Naturalism movement led by Rene Redzepi and others. A big reason for the eclipse is that the elBulli style of Vanguardism is very, very difficult to do well. It incorporates a special blend of technical wizardry, skill, culinary insight, creativity and perhaps most importantly, whimsy. A number of chefs who have developed their own Vanguardist styles still follow the path, but when it comes to the elBulli style, the field is very narrow when it comes to who does it and even narrower for who does it well. It should come as no surprise that Albert Adriá’s restaurants in Barcelona, especially Tickets and 41º do a great job of evoking the culinary spirit of elBulli and they make great substitutes for that experience. It should also not be a surprise that the new Barcelona restaurant owned and run by Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, called Disfrutar (to enjoy), does it just as well. This is no surprise because this trio, along with Albert Raurich were, for years, the main men in the kitchen of elBulli along with the Adriá brothers. This trio of Casañas, Castro and Xatruch have done an outstanding job of not just keeping the past of elBulli alive, but in creating a whole new canon of dishes and techniques to extend the future of the movement and have done so with great style. Continue reading
I have been fortunate enough to have had some chef friends come and cook in my home. This time, however, it wasn’t my home, but the home of my very good friends, Joe, and Donna. They along with Joe’s brother and his wife, won the dinner at a charity auction to benefit The 
Bodega 1900
The magic of Mexican food depends a lot on the indigenous ingredients of Mexico and has, until recently, outside of a few special places in the United States (e.g Rick Bayless’ Topolobampo and Frontera Grill), been extremely difficult to reproduce with high fidelity elsewhere. In recent years, as the availability of key ingredients has improved, the quality of Mexican cooking within the United States has increased exponentially with excellent quality popping up throughout North America. New York City has been the epicenter of this new development led by the likes of Alex Stupak with his burgeoning stable of both creative and traditional Mexican restaurants and the recent arrival of Enrique Olvera’s marvelous modernist, Cosme, amongst others. Europe would seem to present a much higher degree of logistical difficulty, but over the past year or two, Spain, in particular, has witnessed the opening of a number of high profile Mexican restaurants. None, however, are higher profile than the two opened in Barcelona by Albert Adriá and Paco Mendez. The germination of these restaurants occurred about six years ago when Mendez, who hails from the Distrito Federal (Mexico City) was working at elBulli. He and Albert Adriá thought it would be fun to open a Mexican restaurant in Barcelona. Since that time, the duo have been doing research throughout Mexico and over the past two years or so, have put the idea on the front burner, opening not one, but two Mexican restaurants within the past six months. The results, as with anything touched by Albert Adriá, are astonishing. 
While the northeastern United States will be busy digging out from a monster snow storm, a storm of a different sort is about to descend upon the Eurexpo Pavilion and the SIRHA show in Lyon, France – the world finals of the 