Ferran Adria Quotes

Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster.

Food is about being happy - at a table, thats probably where we spend most of our happiest hours.

I think my virtue was I never thought "This is impossible.

If you think well, you cook well.

I'm not a materialist, I don't care for things. I don't like cars, I hate things that can be exploited. I live a simple life. The only luxuries I have in my life are travel and food.

Could you imagine people eating a painting - if they could introduce a painting into their bodies? It's probably the artist's dream, and we have the opportunity to do so.

I use the kitchen as a pathway to achieve this happiness.

You need an entire life just to know about tomatoes.

Our kitchen is a kitchen that makes food designed to be tasted with the five senses and it requires concentration to appreciate all that we want to express.

Innovation, being avant garde, is always polemic.

You can't please everyone, especially if you're doing very radical things at the vanguard of cooking. That's life; it's a polemic I've lived with since I started cooking.

Salt is the only product that changes cuisine. There's a big difference between food that has salt and food without it. If you don't believe that, ask people who can't eat salt.

What you feel like eating at any given moment is what you should have.

Everywhere the sky is blue. There are a multitude of cuisines and dishes. I think of them as the languages and dialects of food.

I cant live without activity; I cant be sedentary.

For me to go to a restaurant and eat something that is not only good, but totally new, is a double thrill. Double the enjoyment.

There is not a good or a bad cuisine, just the one you like the best.

If you go off the edge, it's not cooking anymore, so you have to push it to the limit... What are the limits?

Risk is to do something that 99 percent of the time would be a failure.

Creativity means not copying.

What's wrong with transforming food?

We didnt create dishes. We create preparations to create many dishes.

I am not a multimillionaire. I dont own a yacht or a Ferrari. I live in a 60-square- metre flat. My needs are simple.

We opened El Bulli; there were no secrets there. The recipes were not secret. Anybody who came, the recipes were there for them. This was unthinkable then.

You cannot get an influence from the cuisine of a country if you don't understand it. You've got to study it.

I had a very normal childhood, and my mother cooked very normal food.

There's so much information that there is disinformation.

People wouldn't think of making avant-garde cuisine at home. When people play basketball at home, they can't play like Michael Jordan.

There's a little treat I like a lot called Bollycao. It's like a brioche with chocolate inside, but industrial.

When I go to a fine dining restaurant, I'm excited and I do expect to find proposals to wake my senses.

I don't do my mother's cooking. Because I am a professional and she isn't. Even if she is a better cook.

The menu de degustation is the finest expression of avant-garde cooking.

I don't worry about the things I can't change.

If I don't have pressure, I don't function.

When a customer receives a dish, they get food and design at the same time.

We'll work with any designer producing something linked to gastronomy. So a chair for the dining area, a van to move food around. Anything that's connected to the gastronomic process.

In an avant-garde cooking restaurant, it's the experience that's the difference.

Friends are really important, especially when you've had the successes that I've had. I've gone really far in my career, so they're the ones that keep you humble, keep your feet on the ground.

It’s very hard to be an innovator at the highest level in any discipline. For some chefs it’s merely about combining ingredients, but that’s something you can do with your eyes closed.

I have a drivers licence, but the truth is that I hardly ever drive. I prefer to get around by taxi.

Ferran Adria making hamburgers... some thought it was crazy. But getting them perfect was a challenge. Plus I'm fascinated by all aspects of food.