Lucky Man
Now this a journalism assignment I can believe in:
It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, when the faithful fast. It was the only day that Ferrán Adrià, the head chef of El Bulli in Spain, had free. Mr. Adrià was in New York to promote the book, “A Day at El Bulli,” which chronicles his world-famous “molecular gastronomy,” and I had proposed a kind of stunt in which he would visit the Lower East Side with me, shop in Chinatown and cook a meal.
And so with a friend tagging along (a gentile who had no intention of skipping the repast), I met Mr. Adrià at a Chinese seafood market at the corner of Chrystie and Grand Streets. He wore frayed black jeans and reached out to hug me upon introduction. His protégé, the chef José Andrés, was along as interpreter.
José Andrés is, on his own terms, one of the top chefs in Washington, DC. If you’re in a room with him and he’s not the most accomplished chef in the room, you’re probably in a very tasty room. Food journalism definitely seems like the line of work to be in.
25 Responses to “Lucky Man”
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October 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
This guy’s like the Ancient Mariner. Adria in your kitchen, nor any morsel to eat.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
“Food journalism definitely seems like the line of work to be in.” Try sucking up to the GOP. Worked for Frank Bruni in Bush’s 2000 campaign.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I think the only conclusion to draw is that the author, Allen Salkin, is a pathetic man: To allow a religious superstition to prevent him from a potentially incredible meal is just about one of the stupidest and saddest things imaginable. I have nothing but contempt for anyone who would rather please an imaginary tyrant in the sky rather than indulge in a rare moment of simple human pleasure.
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October 13th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Why in the world would they assign an observant Jew to this story if the dinner was going to occur on Yom Kippur? What a waste! We don’t even get a first hand account of what the food tasted like. Sounds like a bad editor to me.
And it’s not like it going to happen again:
Yikes!
October 13th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
BTW, I enjoy Jose Andres’s “Made in Spain” series on PBS. Andres is from the region in Spain where my wife has family, and so she knows that area quite well. A lot of good food from around there, and Andres highlights it in several episodes of the show.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
i’m with Al (one of those rare non-sports moments): and why did the writer not turn the gig down?
aris, i have nothing but contempt for anyone who takes the position that you do. i don’t care what your personal beliefs are, but to treat an observant person’s belief that does you no harm as a sign of HIS being pathetic is the real demonstration of pathetic.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I grew up completely indifferent to food because Mom was a terrible cook and only knew how to mangle around 10 dishes. (Mmmm. Hamburger cooked with dried-onion soup mix.) Even now, with all the finicky food out there, I could easily live with a dozen well-cooked dishes shuffled around through the year and not worry that I was being short-changed in the food department in the least. If I had to eat “great” food every day, I think I’d go nuts.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
jeffrey, i happen to have as a client one of the forbes 400 and this person has, of course, a personal chef.
who spends his time making high WASP country club dishes – tuna salad, jello molds, cold cuts on white with mayo, etc., etc., etc. – because that’s what the client likes.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
i don’t care what your personal beliefs are, but to treat an observant person’s belief that does you no harm as a sign of HIS being pathetic is the real demonstration of pathetic.
I suspect that if you try to think about it, howard, you’ll be able to come up with beliefs that you find pathetic, regardless of their impact on your own life. We all do. So spare me the self-righteousness. You are only complaining because in this case the pathetic person in question is an observant member of a widely accepted religion. What if he was fasting because his astrologer told him that Jupiter was aligned with Mars? You’re going to tell me that’s not pathetic? Superstitious nonsense is pathetic regardless of provenance.
However, it is not true that this observant person’s beliefs do not have an impact on my life: Every time anyone surrenders reason for mysticism, it affects all of us. Fasting may seem innocuous since he doesn’t force me to fast with him. But he fasts because of his adherence to ancient superstitions, and along with fasting these superstitions contain other, far more harmful imperatives — on how we treat each other, women, sexuality, governance, the conduct of war, science teaching, etc. While this pathetic idiot may not necessarily agree with all the imperatives of his particular superstition, his impaired thought process make him susceptible to all sorts of nonsense. And your attitude just enables him to continue to be pathetic.
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October 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Yes, Al’s right: this is a fucking trainwreck piece, where the NYT commissioning desk seems to have decided that accentuating the discomfort of all involved was ‘hookier’ than doing it straight. It’s as if they took the conventional wisdom — no-one understands El Bulli — and decided to play down to it.
(Did you see Alberto Adrià’s dessert laboratory on Bourdain’s show? Oh. Emm. Eff. Gee.)
October 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
And so with a friend tagging along (a gentile who had no intention of skipping the repast)
That’s us all over, always ready to take one for the team!
October 13th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
That’s us all over, always ready to take one for the team!
This is really taking the whole shabbas goy concept to a new level.
Turning on the lights for Jews on Shabbas – OK. Eating Ferran Adria’s creations for Jews on Yom Kippur – excellent!
As for Bourdain – that was the chocolate egg episode, right? Or am I confusing it? In any case, speaking of Bourdain, he has produced a biography of Adria and was in Manhattan together with Adria – in fact, they gave a joint talk at the Times.
October 13th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
aris, if you want to be spared what you regard as “self-righteousness,” then don’t be self-righteous yourself. you are convinced that religion is all superstitious nonsense and mysticism, and that anyone observing any form of religious practice is, by definition, harming you.
the degree of fatuousness involved in a worldview like that exceeds my (self-righteous) ability to find words to describe it.
and no, pal, i couldn’t care less if he fasted because jupiter was aligned with mars and i certainly wouldn’t describe it as pathetic, so bad guess there. i suppose it’s a function of my own allegiance to something that you would regard as superstitious nonsense and mysticism that keeps me from having as clear-eyed view of the human condition as you possess.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
When I read this article Sunday morning, I felt bad for Adria, and maybe a little angry. Did the reporter set him up? Just because you’re a writer for the New York Times and the chef is on a book tour, doesn’t mean it makes sense to make the guy cook for you in your dinky kitchen. No wonder he’ll never want to do an interview like this again. The guy’s an accomplished professional, and a real innovator in his field. If Salkin had a chance to interview Ichiro would he make him play whiffle ball with a 5 year old and then point out that he failed to hit it out of the park, like he does in real baseball?
I read the piece again, and watched the video. I think I overreacted at first, but I’m still disappointed in the story. I’m lucky enough to have eat at El Bulli twice (but not so lucky that I didn’t have to pay for the privilege). I wanted to read about what’s new with Adria, and what’s in his new book. I didn’t find that in the article. I don’t think someone who’d never heard of Adria and El Bulli would have learned from this story what makes his cuisine so exciting either.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I thought the same thing when I heard about Mark Bittman’s new show.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:25 am
I thought the same thing when I heard about Mark Bittman’s new show.
A couple of dodgy old goats driving around Spain with 2 actresses? You think the 2 geezers might occasionally do so face-palming stuff? You think? Maybe lots of face-palming stuff?
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