Latest news with #moleculargastronomy
Times
01-08-2025
- Business
- Times
Heston Blumenthal: Weight-loss drugs are ruining restaurants but I take them too
One of cooking's greatest innovators has a bleak prediction for the future of the already beleaguered restaurant industry. 'It's going to get much worse in the next six months,' Heston Blumenthal warns. In an interview with Times Radio, the chef, 59, said the rise in popularity of weight-loss drugs would lead to serious changes in dining habits. 'Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro — you still enjoy food, but they stop appetite. So what's going to happen is people are going to want smaller portions,' he said. As labour, ingredients and fuel costs have all increased, diners ordering less means smaller margins for restaurants, and smaller appetites are also leading to a decline in desire for the highly profitable tasting menus at fine dining restaurants such as Blumenthal's three-Michelin-starred the Fat Duck restaurant. The creator of molecular gastronomy admitted he was worried for the future of his industry, 'without doing something about it', but said: 'I'm formulating [a plan]. In my head, it is formulating as we speak.'
Condé Nast Traveler
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
Somni — Restaurant Review
What were your first impressions when you arrived? Walking into Somni (meaning dream in Catalan) feels like entering a piece of performance art—or something you might have dreamed up. Everything from the lighting to the table settings is designed to prepare you for something extraordinary. It's theater, but the kind where you're genuinely excited for the show to start. What's the crowd like? Special occasion diners, food world insiders, and people celebrating something important enough to justify the price point. Everyone here has done their homework and knows they're in for a journey. What should we be drinking? The wine pairings are essential because they're not just matching flavors but creating narrative arcs that complement each course. Trust the sommeliers; they're orchestrating the entire experience. Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown—especially what not to miss. This is molecular gastronomy—chef Aitor Zabala hails from Barcelona and had a stint at El Bulli—with a sense of humor and genuine deliciousness. Expect techniques you've never seen, presentations that defy physics, and flavors that somehow make perfect sense despite seeming impossible. And how did the front-of-house folks treat you? Service here is expertly choreographed without feeling robotic. It's all part of the performance, with servers delivering courses with perfect timing and just enough explanation to enhance the experience. What's the real-real on why we're coming here? You're coming for dinner as entertainment: A multi-sensory experience that you'll be talking about for months. It's expensive, but so is a show at LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Condé Nast Traveler
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
elBulli1846 — Museum Review
Zoom out. What's this place all about? If you missed elBulli the first-time round—when over a million reservation requests a year competed for just 8,000 dining spots—here's its second serving. elBulli1846 is the museum dedicated to the restaurant crowned the world's best five times, before the ovens were switched off for good in 2011. The key ingredient in its success? Boundary-breaking chef Ferran Adrià, who, alongside brother Albert, used culinary alchemy as a palette cleanser from French Nouvelle Cuisine. Adrià pioneered molecular gastronomy—though he prefers the term 'techno-emotional cuisine'—and popularized the supersized tasting menu, whereby dishes became concepts and meals became multi-hour epics. (Case in point, the '1846' in the museum's name refers to the total number of recipes invented in elBulli's kitchen-lab). Today, the former restaurant building serves up food for thought: audio-visual installations deconstruct its backstory, before deeper questions are posed—where does cooking come from, and why do we eat the way we do? If Adrià is, as The New York Times once wrote, 'the Picasso of food,' then elBulli1846 is his culinary art gallery. A museum's permanent collection is its defining feature: How was this one? Sixty-nine exhibits trace the surprising evolution of elBulli—from a 1960s beachside shack named after a pair of bulldogs to a three-Michelin-starred powerhouse with its own publishing house. The kitchen is the natural highlight: A big screen plays archive footage of Adrià choreographing his cooks, while once-revolutionary tools, such as freeze-dryers, are displayed like surgical equipment. In the dining areas, which appear frozen in time as if in service, look for table 25; it was the most asked-for spot (once you see the ocean views, you'll get why). Beyond progressive culinary techniques, another revelation is the almost scientific precision to elBulli's operations—a tantalising insight into how a fine-dining experience was engineered from the inside out. Exhibits keep us coming back. What can we expect? Sixty-nine exhibits trace the surprising evolution of elBulli—from a 1960s beachside shack named after a pair of bulldogs to a three-Michelin-starred powerhouse with its own publishing house. The kitchen is the natural highlight: a big screen plays archive footage of Adrià choreographing his cooks as they bring a recipe to life, while once-revolutionary tools, such as freeze-dryers, are displayed like surgical equipment. In the dining areas, which appear frozen in time as if in service, look for table 25—it was the most asked-for spot (once you see the ocean views, you'll get why). Beyond progressive culinary techniques, another revelation is the almost scientific precision to elBulli's operations—a tantalising insight into how a fine-dining experience was engineered from the inside out. What did you make of the crowd? Gourmands geeking out; coming here really is a pilgrimage for those in the restaurant sector. Though the installations are inspiring whether you're a passionate home-cook, love fine dining, or are intrigued by the systems that make ground-breaking projects happen. On the practical tip, how were the facilities? The indoor-outdoor space is well engineered with wide paths and ramps. There's also a wheelchair available to borrow, plus lockers. Any guided tours worth trying? An audio guide can be downloaded to your smartphone (bring headphones), while in-person guided tours in English, which last for 2.5 hours, can be pre-booked in advance. It's obvious that elBulli1846 is a real passion project for staff, whose enthusiasm, knowledge and hospitality live up to that three-Michelin-star hype. Gift shop: obligatory, inspiring—or skip it? The shop runs heavy on reading material, most of which crosses that glorious intersection of beautifully aesthetic coffee-table books that you can actually sit down and read. There's also a quirky-but-nerdy selection of branded items, from postcards of iconic dishes annotated with the various elements, or a notebook with a flowchart of Adrià's creative process on the cover. You need none of it, but you'll want everything. Is the café worth a stop? Devastating but true: There's no café. Any advice for the time- or attention-challenged? Top-line advice? Don't turn up hungry. Over two hours, you'll work your way through an academic tasting menu of food-as-art—without a morsel of the edible exhibits you were hoping for. While the visit won't satiate the regret of never having eaten at elBulli, it still offers a moreish experience. Fabulously curated, warmly hosted, and set beside a beach, it's a day trip worth savoring—just not on an empty stomach.
