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| Ferran Adria burning down the house at MAD Food Camp |
Considering the theme of MAD Food
Camp was appetite, the first day’s speakers certainly whetted the audience’s
appetite. In the words of one chef, Josh Pollen of London’s Blanch and Shock,
day two was only bound to be “massively epic.” With heavyweight speakers Wylie
Dufrense, Nordic Food Lab, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver, and Ferran Adrià,
listeners had no excuses.
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| Chido Govera |
But
before any of the speakers began, René Redzepi
paid to tribute to Spain – Spain’s soccer team, that is. Busting out a giant
picture of the Spanish flag, Redzepi asked the audience to listen to the
Spanish national anthem – probably much to the consternation of Massimo
Bottura. But the start of day two was not about games. In what was probably the
most poignant talk of the entire symposium, Chido Govera talked about hunger,
memory and the will to do differently. Govera, a young Zimbabwean, was orphaned
at the age of seven. Left to take care of younger brother and grandmother,
Govera learned to forage for mushrooms from her grandmother. Saved from forced
marriage by her own decision, she was fortunate enough to be chosen for a pilot
project on fungiculture. Taught how to cultivate mushrooms using agricultural
waste, Govera skills provided her money and food for not only supporting her own
family, but also other orphans in her community. Using her story, she has not
only taught fungiculture to other disadvantaged youth, but also started her own
business to fund her development projects across the Africa and even in
Oakland, California. But what does this do with appetite? In what could be said
as an inspiration to the world, “Appetite lets us look inward and bring it
outside to make change with what we have.”
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| "It was a shitshow" Oh boy. Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese |
Hope
was also the message of Anthony Myint and Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese
Food. In only what could be a
described as a fairy-tale which even made St. John Bread and Wine head chef Lee Tiernan cry,
Myint and Bowien told the story of Mission Chinese Food. Myint, then a line
cook in San Francisco, “didn’t know what I (Myint) wanted to do with my cooking
career. As I often do in moments of uncertainty, I ate a taco.” And thus the
story of Mission Chinese Food was born. First starting with a food truck and
then renting space from a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for the princely
sum of 300 dollars a day, Bowien and Myint started cooking food in a cramped
kitchen, also shared with the still running Chinese restaurant. It wasn’t easy.
As Myint and Bowien put it mildly, “It was a shitshow.” After doing their own
cooking for a stint, Myint and Bowien would then sponsor guest chefs at the
restaurant. As each night was a “logistical nightmare,” both Myint and Bowien
thought that maybe “failure was an option.” After closing the restaurant for a
month, Bowien and Myint reincarnated themselves as Mission Chinese Food. Like
other Chinese restaurants, Bowien and Myint hired local Chinese immigrants to
be staff. Unlike local Chinese restaurants, they paid their workers living wage
and donated a large part of their profits to charity: one year alone, $130,000
dollars was donated to the San Francisco Food Bank. Using their appetite for
good food and social justice, Bowien and Myint’s story proved that Cinderella
can go to the ball… even with Szechuan peppercorns.
As
several speakers noted, part of understanding appetite is understanding science.
In studying the memory of meals, Dr. Paul Rozin examined the psychology of
memorable meals and his findings should make restaurants take notice. After
surveying diners in America, Rozin asked “Why should be serving dessert at the
end of meals if it’s not our favorite dish?” (Sorry, pastry chefs.) The key to
memorable meals is in the physical ordering and structure of meals. Foods that are
novel, food order (quick survey of Mad Food Camp participants found that
majority liked appetizers the most), and communality all affect our experience
with meals. But are chefs willing to incorporate those elements into planning
meals? Are we missing a certain vocabulary about how we understand the meaning
of food?
In
challenging conceptions, the Nordic Food Lab’s Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen
presented the world of edible “inedibles” – namely insects. In a world where food security has
become paramount concern of policy makers, environmentalists and governments,
why aren’t we eating more “inedibles”? For Nordic Food Lab, that question is
one of the reasons to go wildvore. But the other major concern? Deliciousness.
“Deliciousness is the driving force of edibility.” Distributing a little bag
filled with live ants, bee larvae and a fish sauce of garum and grasshoppers,
“Everything is edible, just some things have consequences.” Luckily for us (and
any future diners at Noma), the ants, bee larvae and grasshoppers happen to be
delicious and can create unique flavor palates. So why aren’t we eating more ants, grubs, and grasshoppers?
“Only prejudice can make it taste bad.”
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| Science. For any occasion. Wylie Dufrense of WD-50 |
And
speaking of prejudices, there are the chefs who just aren’t interested in
science. To those who think as such, Wylie Dufrense of WD-50 has a message for
you: “There are many people outside the kitchen with much more knowledge than
chefs. We have to learn from them too.” For Dufrense the appetite for knowledge
came out of a curiosity to know how and why chefs cook. Going through the
motions is not good enough: “Understanding the processes and having more
knowledge about the ‘whys’ helps us (chefs) to do our jobs better.” But lest anyone think that Dufrense is
just a scientist, he also emphasized the personal and creative aspect of chefs.
How can that be expressed? With humor. But in the end? “Whoever knows the most
wins…Let’s keep knowing. Let’s keep learning. Let’s keep cooking.”
But
that humor bit? Leave it to Mr. and Mrs. St. John to provide it. Sitting down
on two hay bales with a nice bottle of red, Fergus Henderson and Trevor
Gulliver of St. John Bar and Restaurant in London. What do these refined gentlemen have to say about appetite? Fergus said it best: “I am a prisoner of
appetite. I have a lunch habit.” But in terms of where that appetite comes from?
It’s from diners. That is where the force is. But in terms of a restaurateur? Trevor
tells it like it is: “A good restaurant will take five or six years. You have
to have an appetite to hang on while you build that.” To wit, Fergus suggested that “chefs
have to be Jedi knights, or rather, Jedi chefs.” But most importantly, the
message was one of humility – and a good bon mot.
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| The St. John Show: Fergus Henderson & Trevor Gulliver |
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| Adria explains the entire culinary universe...on a flipboard |
But
in what was probably the most anticipated talk of the entire symposium, Ferran
Adrià took the stage. Considering the circumstances, it was a miracle that he
appeared at all: “For 18 months, I (Adrià) swore I would never go to another
chef symposium. I swear. But I came. And I want to explain why.” In what may
seem as a surprise to many, Adrià explained from 1994 to 2008, El Bulli never
made any money. But it was never the point: “I got into cooking because I like
the challenge of creativity, to forge new paths. I never searched for success,
but happiness.” Creating that
happiness takes a lot of work. In probably the only statistical demonstration
using grapes, Adrià pointed to the miniscule population interested in avant-garde
cuisine-in a grape seed. “What’s a grape seed? It’s nothing! But if you put it
in the ground, it grows.” But that growth is one that takes hard work, dedication
and creativity. And creativity does not come automatically. It’s a capricious
beast: “If you want to play at the Noma/El Bulli level, know that creativity
has no compassion, no matter how passionate the chef.” But ultimately it is not just one chef
that makes a great restaurant. For Adrià, “El Bulli is not made by Ferran Adrià.
El Bulli is bigger than any of us.” And in what could only be a tribute to the
2000 staff that came through the restaurant, Adrià reminded all of us what it’s
all about: “The human side of this symposium is always with human values -
ethics, honesty, happiness and justice – and you.” If Ferran Adrià and El Bulli are any indication of the
manifestation of those ideas, the world is going to be a better – and happier –
place for it.
Cross-posted at The Daily Meal.
