Notes on creativity … Ferran Adrià

This week i attended the opening night of a inspiring new exhibition at Marres Maastricht ‘Ferran Adria: Notes on creativity’. For years, Adrià was the head chef of elBulli, the world’s most famous restaurant, a half hour drive from Barcelona. The restaurant only opened for six months a year. For the rest of the year, the chef withdrew to his laboratory with a few trusted colleagues to develop new recipes. Ferran Adrià ignited a revolution in the kitchen, not only in terms of food, but also in its design, cooking utensils and menus. Every innovation was accompanied by drawings, diagrams and formal experiments, through which Adrià translated the vocabulary of taste into the visual domain.

As one of the most important avant-garde chefs of the twenty-first century, Adrià pushes culinary boundaries with knowledge and wit, transforming the art of food into an art form all its own. Hundreds of notebooks have been filled with concepts, ideas, collaged photographs, and loose sketches for new dishes for elBulli.

Notes on Creativity is dedicated to Ferran Adrià ‘s quest for creativity and how that led to his revolutionary, innovative cuisine. The highlight of the exhibition is a specially designed ‘Hall of mirrors’ with an endless landscape of over a hundred floating objects: glass tumblers in all possible forms, metal amuse pictures, slate and glass plates and plastics, which indicate the size of a dish. This exhibition offers an unique peek inside his life and work. To be seen till 03-07-2016.

Exhibition: Marres, House for contemporary culture, Maastricht www.marres.org

All images by Hilde van Gerwen SPONS VORMGEVERS