| The world's highest ranked chef, Ferran Adrià of El Bulli, said in an interview with John Carlin of Observer Food Monthly: "The best chefs I know are the ones who most enjoy eating". It took me a while to understand just what he meant by this. It's not so much about behaviour in your own kitchen, as in "never trust a fat(/skinny) chef" jokes. What he was saying is that to reach the top you must treat food as a vocation, not as a job. You need to love buying it, cooking it and eating it. That's just how I feel. Whenever I read about an exciting eaterie - whether it's a Michelin-starred palace or a creative local café - I want to experience it for myself. And I want that experience to involve all of my senses, including my intellect. When I dine out, I want to be excited, reinforced, delighted, stimulated, comforted and challenged. |
| I have extremely eclectic tastes and a love for cuisines that reflect the enormous diversity of this planet's cultures. I'm equally at home with the food of Spain, Trinidad, Cambodia, Japan, Brazil and Australia. And equally comfortable with the food of the great European masters of gastronomy and with the hunter-gatherer cuisine of indigenous peoples. I want to experience a wide variety of produce, combinations, flavours and presentations - not so I can copy other chefs but in order to stimulate the development of my own novel and creative ideas. To read my posts about the best of the restaurants that I've experienced, click on the appropriate photo or name link. |  My review of dining out in Barcelona |
