Lifestyle / Gastronomy

Ferran Adrià To Create Products For PepsiCo

Though world renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adrià will be shuttering his legendary restaurant El Bulli this month, regular folks will be able to sample his creative genius at a fraction of the price and the wait now that he’s teamed up with PepsiCo. The food and beverage giant announced the partnership Thursday, saying that Adrià […]

Jun 17, 2011 | By AFPRelaxnews

Indra Nooyi with Ferran Adria

Though world renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adrià will be shuttering his legendary restaurant El Bulli this month, regular folks will be able to sample his creative genius at a fraction of the price and the wait now that he’s teamed up with PepsiCo.

The food and beverage giant announced the partnership Thursday, saying that Adrià will lend his creative, culinary genius to all of the company’s brands worldwide.

El Bulli was named the World’s Best Restaurant five times by Restaurant magazine and Adrià himself has likewise been described as the best chef in the world.

PepsiCo owns names like Frito-Lay, Quaker, Tropicana and Gatorade.

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Adrià has been recruited to create a line of new ‘snackable’ foods, breakfast options and convenience items with a special focus on healthier choices.

In his food lab, Adrià will tasked with developing natural preserving and “taste enhancement” techniques that also reduce the use of fat and oil.

This week, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi spent time at El Bulli where the chef – who has been described as the best in the world for his mastery of molecular gastronomy – hosted a workshop proposing new flavor ideas, details of which were kept mum.

The commercial and culinary partnership, meanwhile, isn’t entirely unexpected. In 2005, Adrià helped PepsiCo’s Spanish Tropicana brand, Alvalle develop a range of chilled vegetable soups like gazpacho and Lay’s Artesanas 100 percent olive oil potato chips.

The commercial partnership was announced on the eve of El Bulli’s shuttering.

After helming the Michelin-starred restaurant for 24 years, Adrià will be serving its last meal June 30 and reopen in 2014 as a gastronomical think tank, the El Bulli Foundation.

In the months and weeks leading to El Bulli’s closing, food writers and bloggers have been heaping on the hyperbole, spawning what one disenchanted writer at Slate.com dubbed the “I Ate at El Bulli Piece,” or IAAEBP.

So high is demand for a seat at the Catalan restaurant, two million people tried to snag a reservation last year but only 8,000 were successful – a 0.4-percent admission rate, writer Noreen Malone pointed out.

Though Adrià is best known for El Bulli, he also owns two restaurants in Barcelona he runs with his brother Albert. Tickets is a tapas bar and 41°, a cocktail bar.

Source: AFPrelaxnews


 
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