Adrià believes in an 'eat well, cook well' philosophy so every staff meal, or the family meal as it was known, consisted of three courses of nutritionally balanced, ordinary meals - no fancy ingredients and often very multicultural to reflect the elBulli staff mix.
When it was announced that elBulli was to close in mid 2011, Adrià and one of his head chefs collected all the recipes for the family meals into a book targeted at restaurants. But given the home cooked nature of the meals, it's now also a beautiful book for domestic home cooks.
The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adrià (Image courtesy of PEPR Publicity) |
The book overflows with step-by-step images as well as a visual spread of all the necessary ingredients per meal and even a timeline to ensure all three recipes are made concurrently and to perfection.
Further, each recipe offers quantities to serve 2, 6, 20 or 75 hungry mouths; the latter of which was the daily challenge for elBulli staff dinner.
Pintxos by Kika Tapas Bar, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst |
For $55, you can dine on a choice of two weekly changing set meals - each three courses - straight out of the book. It's probably now the closest experience you'll get to dining at elBulli.
Along with a bunch of bloggers, I was invited to sample The Family Meal, coinciding with the launch of a new menu at Kika Tapas Bar. We started with a shared dish of pintxos, featuring an oyster shooter, gorgeously tender grilled lamb with roasted garlic and butterbean puree, and some grilled cuttlefish.
Daily Sydney rock oysters in gazpacho |
Saffron marinated cuttlefish cooked a la plancha, watermelon, mustardcress and lemon dressing |
Gazpacho from The Family Meal book |
Lime marinated fish from The Family Meal book |
For the alternative set menu (Menu 9 in the book),they started with the biggest dish of semi-raw fish I've ever seen. By Japanese sashimi standards, this would be a group share plate - for 6. The lime marinated kingfish slicers were topped with onion, diced coriander and olive oil, and claimed victory over many a diner.
Black rice with cuttlefish from The Family Meal book |
The first mouthful was like a warm hug: all-encompassing and giving in its big flavours and depth. The perfectly seasoned, creamy-textured rice actually tasted of cuttlefish, and when I chanced upon the first square chunk of cuttlefish, it was a tender delight.
I think the trick to the richness and depth of flavour was the addition of a sofrito; a common Spanish base for cooking, consisting of tomato, garlic, oil and onion (this and other 'basic' sauces are also explained in detail in the book).
Osso bucco from The Family Meal book |
Bread with chocolate and olive oil from The Family Meal book |
The alternative dessert was a take on the piña colada cocktail: simply pineapple blended with coconut milk and white rum. Dessert cocktail, indeed.
At the end of a very filling meal, it was fun to look up both meals in the book and see the exact steps that were taken to get the meal on the table. The recipes are set out storyboard style with a few methodical words at every photo step - it's fun even just to look at.
Gazpacho in The Family Meal book |
Black rice with cuttlefish in The Family Meal book |
Bread with chocolate and olive oil from The Family Meal book |
Food, booze and shoes dined on The Family Meal at Kika Tapas Bar and received a copy of The Family Meal (published by Phaidon Press, RRP A$39.95) courtesy of PEPR Publicity.
8 comments:
Love Kika Tapas Bar, in fact I love any Tapas bar now that I come to think about it!
It was awesome to meet you on Tuesday! The massive servings totally defeated me, even though they were super tasty
Bread with chocolate and olive oil sounds interesting but carb heavy at the end of a meal. Must try it at home and see if it works for me.
Hi MissPiggy - Twas my first time at Kika; think I'll have to go back to check out the tapas proper.
Hi Jacq - You too! Was funny seeing everyone with those massive ossu bucco plates!
Hi Corinne - Yeah, I think thnner slices of bread are a must.
WOW. I've never heard of this place but it's an amazing promotion. I'm going to go as soon as I can :D
The kingfish looks so amazing, might forego lunch beforehand to fit this all in :9 Thanks for the share!
Hi Dee - I agree; it's such a clever tie-in. And who doesn't want to eat Ferran Adria's food? ;)
The black rice with cuttlefish was indeed drool worthy! lol The gremolalta on the osso bucco was amazing! It was nice to finally meet you! Your photos look great :) I've just recently tried making pesto off the book and it turned out pretty good. Love this book!
Hi Raff - Yeah, amazing what a little parsley and lemon zest can do - made the dish, I thought! Lovely to meet you too :)
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