Ferran Adrià - who is he, and how did he become such an influential chef on the international stage, winning "Best Restaurant in the World" for an unprecedented four years running?
Without any formal culinary training, Ferran built elBulli into a three Michelin-starred restaurant, with over two million reservation requests received for only 8,000 dining places. How did a cook in the military service get to where he is today?
Reinventing Food, Ferran Adrià: The Man Who Changed The Way We Eat is the first-ever biography of Ferran Adria, written by award-winning food writer Colman Andrews, Saveur co-founder, James Beard Foundation Award-winner and long-time friend of Ferran.
And yes, you guessed it, Grab Your Fork readers have the chance to win their own copy, thanks to this week's Freebie Friday.
THE PRIZE:
One reader will win a copy of Reinventing Food, Ferran Adrià: The Man Who Changed The Way We Eat.
The book includes 16 chapters that map the rise of Ferran, with a final chapter called Morphing that reveals the full story behind elBulli's closure and his plans for the future.
This 360-page hardcover book is officially released today, 1 October 2010, and retails for $A39.95 / $NZ46.00 (Phaidon Press).
*This competition is open to Australian and New Zealand delivery addresses only.
HOW TO ENTER:
All you have to do is fulfil the requirements below:
Option 1:
The Reinventing Food competition closes on Sunday 24 October 2010 at 9.30pm AEST. The winner will be announced on Grab Your Fork on Monday 25 October 2010.
EDIT: This competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winner announced here.
- Leave a comment on this post and tell us: Who, or what, has changed the way you eat?
- And then send an email to grabyourforkfreebiefriday@yahoo.com.au with the subject heading "Ferran" and include your full name and a copy of your published comment from this post.
Option 2:
- Enter via the Grab Your Fork facebook fan page- Simply leave your answer on the event listing here.
The Reinventing Food competition closes on Sunday 24 October 2010 at 9.30pm AEST. The winner will be announced on Grab Your Fork on Monday 25 October 2010.
EDIT: This competition has now closed. Congratulations to the winner announced here.
More Grab Your Fork competitions to enter:
(entries close Sunday 10 October 2010)(entries close Sunday 10 October 2010)
The thing that had the biggest influence on how I eat is the music scene that I grew up with. I would see punk or hardcore bands every weekend when I was a teenager, and met a whole lot of vegans and vegetarians. I'd always liked to cook, but had never really thought about the ingredients I used or where they came from. Things like going out to dinner and group cook-ups opened my eyes to new and interesting foods (like chilli, how exotic!), and definitely contributed to my never-ending search for new ingredients and foreign flavours. Deciding to become a vegetarian taught me how to really cook, and ended up shaping the most consuming hobby of my life - even now, more than a decade on. And I like it. :)
ReplyDeleteFor me, the biggest influence on the way I eat is my wife - she is from Mexico, and I've come to learn about the many varied regional styles of food through her, her father (who worked as a chef for 30 years in Mexico), her Mother (who makes traditional home style food) and from travelling to Mexico.
ReplyDeleteIts not just the food, its everything that surrounds the food - family rituals, the change in proportion/timing of meals, it opened my eyes to how different a culture can be just through food.
The biggest influence on the way I eat are the immigrants. When I left New Zealand in 1974 the place was a culinary desert. The variety and choice in Sydney astounded me, still does.The world is here and it tastes fantastic.So many dishes, so little time.
ReplyDeleteMoving to Sydney from Singapore changed the way I eat. Singapore is known as a food paradise, but the focus there is on tasty food at a cheap price. Since moving to Sydney, I've become more aware of the importance of sourcing food from sustainable and local farmers, shop at farmers' markets and generally eat and cook with more mindfulness.
ReplyDeleteBecoming a weekly visitor to the Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square and the Eveleigh Markets has completely transformed the way I approach cooking and eating. I spend all week looking forward to discovering what's come into season, last Saturday I saw purple carrots and golden beetroots for the first time! Walking home with organic, local, colourful produce is pure joy! With such gorgeous ingredients it's impossible not to be inspired to create simple, seasonal dishes that allow the ingredients to sing.
ReplyDeleteGetting a thermomix has changed my cooking. I am branching out and trying things I never thought of trying to cook. And as there are thermomix distributors in so many different areas of the world, I have tried making things from different cultures too. I keep accumulating more recipes to try, than I have time to cook! Love it!
ReplyDeleteLately the biggest influence on my cooking has been MasterChef - it has re-awakened my passion for food, and also introduced my kids to food (from another angle). They now love to watch cooking shows, and even want to help in the kitchen. I have now started experimenting more, and I even write a food blog now. While I am not making any gastronomic headlines (yet) perhaps I will after I have read the book!!
ReplyDeleteSydney Foodbloggers (including you, Helen from Grab Your Fork) plus a free holiday from Heineken to France change the way I eat.
ReplyDeleteWith these food reviews from Sydney foodbloggers, I was slowly getting more exposure and salivating over these food photos plus their descriptions which always true to my tastebuds. At the sam...e time, I won a holiday to France by selling most Heineken at the place I work before, so I head up with 4 others and found myself eating France's food (in Paris and South France) and drinking wine together with meals which expose my tastebuds to a big change. I never look back afterward.
Vive to foodbloggers and overseas food adventures!!!
Starting a blog nearly a year ago has definitely changed the way I eat. I've always loved trying new foods and recipes, but blogging about them has definitely made me think about my food more! Almost everything that I cook and post recipes for is something I've never cooked before, and I try to choose new dishes at restaurant, rather than sticking to my old favourites. It's an amazing world of food out there!
ReplyDeleteI'm still influenced today by the food I was given as a child, but when I moved out of home I knew very little about cooking - my entire repertoire consisted of spaghetti bolognese, cakes, biscuits and slices. In my late teens I started watching a lot of cooking shows, reading books, magazines and blogs and now I'm constantly trying new things. It's a constant adventure seeing new recipes, cuisines or dishes and trying to make them myself at home. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're a total disaster but they're usually still delicious, if a bit misshapen. :)
ReplyDeleteMy Argentinian husband and his latin roots.
ReplyDeleteHe's reinvented the passion and love that food rightly deserves.
We grow it, make it and respect it intensly.
My world of eating changed from a world of pain (literally) to a world of infinite possibilities because of two things.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a baby I happily ate everything my mum fed me. But when it was time to use my hands I disliked the texture of fruit and vegetables. From then on I lived on an excitingdiet of baked beans, macaroni cheese, bangers & mash, eggs & soldiers and chicken nuggets.
The first thing that changed me was a family holiday to the U.S.A. On this trip I enjoyed many a meal out and about town, and whilst they were often magnificent, I also found often elements were so highly processed and artificial to the point of seeming inedible (green corn chips anyone?).
The second being my first break up, upon which I gained weight from excessive nutella eating.
Upon returning home I decided to change for the better and began swapping white bread peanut butter sandwiches for grilled veggies on rye bread and tiny teddies for pink ladies.
I am continually inspired by chefs such as Jamie Oliver and nutritionists such as Cyndi O'Meara who preach the virtues of eating natural ingredients but enjoying everything, as all good food is good for you!
I can now boast the fact that I would eat any animal on the planet, let alone the fact that I often have to let other people choose what we should share at a restaurant because I so unfussy I would find it difficult to decide.
How exciting is food!
After growing up being fed steaks like hockey pucks and veg that is so overcooked it's best eaten with a spoon, finding out about "medium rare" and not cooking veg in a pressure cooker changed the way I eat and made me enjoy food a lot more
ReplyDeleteI grew up with my grandmother's cooking, a true malayan "Nyonya" cooking. It was only several years after I moved to Sydney that I began to appreciate "Nyonya" cooking. I can now really appreciate the blend of the different spices which creates the amazing flavours in every malayan dish.
ReplyDeleteThen I went to Paris early this year. My culinary adventure in Paris made me realise that eating is not only about the taste of the food. The whole eating experience involves the textures, the ambience, the sound/music around me, the colours in my food and my interaction with the food. From that trip on... I am never the same again.
Age has changed the way i eat ..in my teens to twenties takeaway was the norm, 30's was homecooked without a lot of thought now in my 40's i actually watch what goes into my food and how i prepare it -better with age as the saying goes ..
ReplyDeleteMy girlfriend. I've gone from the stereotypical meat and three veg family growing up (I still love this food!) with my great mum cooking away for us to having my horizons definately expanded by eating with my girlfriend and her family.
ReplyDeleteI was naive with my flavours, with chilli and garlic initially novel flavours but now a staple of most dishes. I've eaten African, Asian, European, central and south American food, all with my fantastic girlfriend by my side.
Tom Parker Bowles changed the way I eat. At fifteen, his was the first book I read (The Year of Eating Dangerously) that introduced me to depths of interest in food I'd never before encountered.
ReplyDeleteMy chihuahua has changed the way I eat. If I'm eating chocolate and he comes in the room and sees the chocolate, I have to stop eating it and hide it because he really wants some but it's bad for him so I hide it and pretend I have nothing!
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for your entries. I found your variety of influences fascinating and inspiring.
ReplyDeleteThis competition has now closed. The winner has been announced here