Review of Chef’s table: Albert Adria

This week I watched Chef’s Table Season 5, Episode 4: ‘Albert Adrià’, a prominent ambassador of Lavazzza with a book on cooking coffee. The core message of this episode is about gaining power and coming into the spotlight. Essentially, this episode was the story of Adrian rising to stardom from the shadow of his brother Ferran Adria. His intentions were clear by only having opened the restaurant for 6 months and the other half on research. His vision for food in a formal and codified way through innovation and experimentation. Albert Adria is portrayed as a genius with cinematographic scenes of dishes, whilst, his character involved family scenes and more staged interviews on his career. The focus is on the family dynamics and growth in Albert Adria’s passion as a culinary artist and pioneer. Footage and dialogue centred around food which makes this episode a foodie content. A foodie film is defined by food as the catalyst for the narrative. A medium whereby the food is key in the visuals, the plot and the narrative of the content. Food is the medium between the two brother’s competition in the culinary industry and the kitchen. My favourite quote is ‘Creative and anarchy requires a lot of organisation’ from Albert, as it highlights the effort required to invent and experiment using enough chaos so it works and is delicious. This episode reminded myself of a recent study I’d read, Cosmopolitan taste by Anton Pujol, which highlights the emergence of regional diverse cuisine in elite restaurants and their impact on Spain’s culinary nationalism. Moreover, the historical suppression followed by emergence of Catalan’s culture is parallel to Albert’s own rise to stardom in this unique region of Spain.