
If the world's greatest chef cooked for a living, he'd starve - DaniFong
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/futureoffood/story/0,,1969713,00.html
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pchristensen
The restaurant is a loss leader. He benefits greatly by having demand exceed
supply. If anyone with $3K can get a table, then he's just another expensive
restaurant. But if it's impossible to even get there, it's worth talking
about. He makes his money elsewhere:

"El Bulli itself may not make money, but the brand has spawned plenty of other
things that do. Those 100,000 big books that he has sold containing the Bulli
secrets, going back to when Adrià first joined the restaurant in 1983 cost
£100 each and are printed by El Bulli's very own publishing house. Then
there's his range of supermarket books (50 new tapas you can make at home,
10-minute recipes, that sort of thing); a hotel in Andalucía; three fast-food
outlets called Fast Good (two in Madrid, one in Santiago, Chile), with four
more on the way; and his endorsement of a top-selling brand of olive oil. He
charges many thousands for each lecture he gives. He has a collection of
kitchenwear, a joint venture with Armand Basi. He has his own brand of plates
and cutlery (including a spoon with small holes in it so you can eat your
cereal without drinking the milk).He has deals with Lavazza coffee, Pepsi,
United Biscuits and Spain's biggest hotel chain. One could go on but he is, in
short, the David Beckham of the food business."

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eru
Get a table at his restaurant - and sell it.

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rw
Key quote:

'There was one thing Maximin said to us that has always stayed with me.
Someone asked him, what is creativity? And he replied, "Creativity is not
copying". So simple and so obvious, I suppose, yet that was a key moment for
me. Because until then I had always copied, but from that moment on everything
changed. _I understood something I had never understood before. I passed from
being a technician to a creator.'_

~~~
13ren
What happens if you have that, and then enter a new field?

How do you learn the basics without copying, and losing your identity as a
creator?

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DaniFong
On this, I'd like to reference another artistic inspiration of mine, guitarist
Robbie Basho.

'I don't try to follow the masters; I try to ask the same questions they
asked.'

~~~
13ren
_Don't Copy a Design — Steal It_ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=283094>

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mynameishere
I'm not sure how you can charge 250 euros a plate and come out at a loss. It
would be interesting to see their books, but I'm guessing that loafer
lightener at 400 dollars/month is involved.

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mikkom
it's not 250 euros a plate, it's 250 euros for a complete menu with wines and
about 15 courses. Compared to other this class restaurants it's dirt cheap.

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tptacek
250EU for a whole tasting menu is not dirt cheap. For less than $370 you can
get the tour menu at Alinea with wine pairings, and Alinea is in the top 5 in
the states. For $250 you can get the tasting menu at The Fat Duck, which is
the second best restaurant in the world.

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mikkom
FYI, el bulli is #1 restaurant in the world, fat duck is the second. And afaik
fat duck is much more expensive if you include wines.

The important thing here is wines because yes you can find menu for that price
but wine list that is meant to go hand in hand with the menu usually doubles
the price.

Alinea is at number 21 btw.

<http://www.theworlds50best.com/2008_list.html>

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raganwald
Slightly edited:

Next year's El Bulli menu will be in every respect different from this year's.
' _If not_ ,' says Adrià, as he shows me around, ' _why bother?_ '

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ryanmahoski
"Summarising what we do, I'd say it is this: whereas before the objective was
to create new dishes, now what we seek is to create techniques and concepts
that will generate many dishes."

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adnam
\-- "400 Euros! What a rip off!"

\-- "No, that piece of paper is desert!"

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJFZu9AIrU>

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river_styx
Looks like it's time for chef Ramsay to kick somebody's ass.

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tptacek
Chef Ramsey has fucking posters of Fernan Adria on his bedroom wall and taped
to the inside of his locker.

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qqq
Silly title. If he cooked for a living, _and refused to charge anywhere near
the profit maximizing price_ , then he'd lose money ... completely by his own
choice.

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DaniFong
Yeah, it's a silly title. I'm a bit on a fence about it: it's provocative, and
there's a lot of content there, but it seems to have skewed the discussion.

