El Bulli Founder Pushes His Creative Oeuvre Beyond Food
頂尖名廚拓展事業版圖
By Sam Borden

One day in November, Ferran Adrià, the Spanish chef who turned foods into foams and pioneered a new era in gastronomic innovation while running one of the world’s most popular restaurants, bounced through a loft space in Barcelona. He peered at pencil-sketched mind maps and examined books jammed on narrow shelves. Then he stopped.
11月的某一天，在經營全球最受歡迎餐廳之一時，把食物變成泡沫，並開創創意料理新時代的西班牙廚師費蘭．阿德里亞，在巴塞隆納一個沒隔間的樓面跳來跳去。他盯著鉛筆素描的心智圖，並仔細檢查塞滿狹窄書架的書。然後停了下來。

“I have a question,” he said in Catalan to the small group of visitors and staff members. “What is wine?”
他用加泰隆語對一小群訪客和工作人員說：「我有一個問題，葡萄酒是什麼？」

There was silence. Finally, cautiously, someone offered, “A drink?” Mr. Adrià's eyes widened. “Maybe it is a drink if I put it in a cup. But what if I make it into a sauce and cook with it?” Mr. Adrià spun away and began walking again. “Now,” he said over his shoulder as the crowd shuffled in his wake, “what if I turn the wine into ice cream? What is it then?”
現場一片沉默。終於，有人小心翼翼地回答，「一種飲料？」阿德里亞張大眼睛。「如果我把它倒在杯子裡，也許是飲料。但如果我把它做成醬汁並用來烹飪呢？」阿德里亞轉身走開，又開始走來走去。人群在他身後走動，他轉過頭來說：「現在，如果我把酒變成冰淇淋呢？那它又是什麼呢？」

Mr. Adrià, 52, has always been inquisitive. Even during the peak years at El Bulli, when Restaurant Magazine named it the world’s best restaurant five times from 2002 to 2009 and he rocketed beyond the standard-fare celebrity chefs into the rarefied air of the gastronomic geniuses, he would pose random questions about the origin of vegetables or fruit.
52歲的阿德里亞向來好問。即使在「鬥牛犬」餐廳的顛峰時期，他也會隨興問到蔬菜或水果的起源。2002年到2009年間鬥牛犬被「餐廳」雜誌五度評選為全球最佳餐廳，他則一飛沖天，超越一般名廚，成為難得的料理天才。

Mr. Adrià calculated that he concocted 1,846 dishes during his time there, many of which pushed the boundaries on epicurean labels (the artichoke as rose petals, the olive formed from frozen olive juice). He says the primary reason he closed the restaurant in 2011 was scared of repeating himself. “Can you imagine this pressure?” he said.
阿德里亞計算他在「鬥牛犬」餐廳時期調製出1846道菜，其中許多道拓展了美食標籤的界限（做成玫瑰花瓣的朝鮮薊，用冷凍橄欖汁做成橄欖形狀）。他說，他在2011年關掉餐廳的主要原因是他害怕重複自己。他說：「你能想像這種壓力嗎？」

Now there is pressure of a different kind. Mr. Adrià's acclaim came with benefits – he used to charge 80,000 euros, or about $97,000, for an hour-long lecture on creativity.
現在又有了不同的壓力。阿德里亞所獲好評帶來好處，他談創意的演說一小時通常收費8萬歐元，合9萬7000美元。

His latest venture is an umbrella project known as the El Bulli Foundation. Consider the activity on a morning: One group of employees worked in a corner of the loft on prototypes of a website known as BulliPedia that, when finished, will be a type of Wikipedia for haute cuisine. On the opposite side of the room, a young woman edited pages intended for a multivolume book tracing the history of food. At a desk facing the window, three men spent hours researching white asparagus.
他最近的投資事業是一項大型計畫，稱為「鬥牛犬基金會」。想想最近一個早上的活動：一群員工在一個沒隔間樓層的一個角落研究「鬥牛犬百科」網站的雛型，一旦完成，將是一種高級料理的維基百科。在房間的另一端，一名年輕女性在編輯頁面，目的是為出版有好幾冊的追蹤食物歷史巨著。在面窗的桌子旁，三名男士花幾小時研究白蘆筍。

“We are trying to create an entire language for creativity,” he said, adding, “I know this sounds a little pretentious.”
他說：「我們試圖創造創意的整體語言。」並接著說：「我知道這聽起來有點自命不凡。」

Telefónica, the telecommunications giant based in Madrid, is a sponsor. The nonprofit Foundation, Mr. Adrià said, is intended to appeal to “chefs, as well as anyone who is interested in the creative process.” He added, “It is a think tank for creativity.”
總公司設在馬德里的西班牙電信公司是贊助商。阿德里亞說，這個非營利基金會的目的是吸引「廚師，以及任何對創意過程有興趣的人」。他接著說，「它是創意的智庫」。

It isn’t obvious yet how ideas will leap from notion to project. Mr. Adrià has divided the foundation into two main strands: knowledge, which is the group focused on creating BulliPedia; and creativity, which is focused on “deconstructing the entire process of creativity.”
構想該如何從觀念跳到計畫，還不是很清楚。阿德里亞把基金會分成兩大塊：知識，聚焦於創造鬥牛犬百科的一組；以及創意，聚焦於「解構創意的整個過程」。

He calls this group El Bulli DNA. El Bulli Lab is the Barcelona-based office where people associated with El Bulli DNA work. That should not be confused with 6W Food, which is expected to be a blend of a science museum, an art museum and a house of culinary innovation.
他稱這個群體為鬥牛犬DNA。鬥牛犬實驗室是設在巴塞隆納的辦公室，人員與鬥牛犬DNA的工作有關。不要與6W Food搞混了，後者可望成為一間科學博物館、一間美術館和一間料理創新館的混合體。

Also in the works are a search engine, SeaUrching (named in part for the delicacy) and a language to describe gastronomy known as Huevo, Spanish for egg.
在規畫中的還有搜尋引擎SeaUrching（sea urchin是海膽，此一美食是用它命名的部分原因），以及Huevo的烹飪法，是西班牙文的蛋。

The plans for El Bulli 1846, a home for the innovation, include exhibition areas, a brainstorming room with a glass wall facing the sea and a kitchen for fund-raising events. There is only one problem: It is mostly not happening.
創新館「鬥牛犬1846」計畫包含展示區、有面海玻璃牆的腦力激盪室，以及為募款活動而設的廚房。只有一個問題：大部分還未發生。

The location, about two hours north of Barcelona, is a protected area, Parc Natural del Cap de Creus, jutting into a bay. The park is famous for inspiring the work of Salvador Dalí and, later, as the unlikely location of El Bulli.
地點在巴塞隆納北邊約兩小時車程，是保護區，克雷烏斯角自然公園，伸向一個海灣。這座公園以激發達利創作靈感聞名，後來是「鬥牛犬」意想不到的所在地點。

Ecologists objected to the potential impact of the expansion and gathered nearly 96,000 signatures on a petition to stifle it.
生態學家反對擴建計畫的潛在影響，號召了9萬6000人連署請願要求封殺此案。

A modest expansion is underway. Some people say they think Mr. Adrià will ultimately get the overhaul he initially desired.
較小規模的擴建正在進行。有些人說，他們認為阿德里亞終會如最初所願獲准大事翻修。

Just after 6 p.m., Mr. Adrià stopped to linger over index cards that traced the history of cuisine from the Neolithic era. “If I don’t understand all of this,” he said, “I don’t understand anything.”
下午6點剛過，阿德里亞停下來仔細查看追溯到新石器時代的烹飪史索引卡片。他說：「我若不了解這一切，我就什麼都不了解。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/business/ferran-adria-the-former-el-bulli-chef-is-now-serving-up-creative-inquiry.html

2015-01-20聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版上