Review of El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2011) by Rainer K — 28 Dec 2011

Like all geniuses Ferran Adria is a bit of a chaotic. Thus he's fun to watch (and to hear - his French is hilarious) but the patience of the audience can be strained if you shoot him testing his food for a 10-15 minute sequence - the only part of the film that was tedious though.

Thanks to school education I have some insights how restaurants and haute cuisine work but for people with lesser knowledge about the vast differences and funny similarities between the El Bulli and the real world I can only assume it's a boring and complex film. The lack of commentary and narration is also part of the problem - sometimes even I would have needed a little explanation what the product is they're cooking with.

It's impressive how different on so many levels Adria's team works and what he creates. Although I prefer a tender steak to his molecular creations it's like admiring spacecrafts and astronomists without ever want to go to space himself.

Also excellent editing work and a clear vision of the director what he wanted to do. I found it as pleasant as I expected and got some really neat insights in how the most radical cook of our time works.