Unelaborated Products

Not all food is cooked. Anyone who has ever bitten an apple or shucked an oyster knows this, but few of us would consider writing a cookbook on the subject. Then again, few of us think like Ferran Adrià. Since closing his internationally acclaimed restaurant, elBulli in 2011, the innovative, internationally acclaimed chef has worked alongside the culinary experts at his own elBullifoundation – a culinary academy and think tank – to describe, express and record the simple methodology that lies behind the way we all create food.

The chef and his foundation look at unprocessed and uncooked culinary foodstuffs. The book is the first-ever survey of the ingredients found in nature that are used as the building blocks of all cuisine. Over these 520 pages, Ferran and the Foundation’s experts focus on four chapters: ‘Questions about unelaborated products’, ‘Understanding products according to classifications’, ‘Product classifications and categories’ and ‘Applying the classifications’.

The book’s main objective is to offer an understanding of the many products available for our use, especially those not requiring the application of processing techniques, and discern their characteristics via numerous classification criteria. The volume also presents a detailed analysis based on diverse disciplines that help us to understand and contextualise unelaborated products, and to express them in a simple, understandable and practical way.