Chef Ferran Adrià will facilitate a course at Harvard for the next five years

Girona (ACN).- The Catalan chef Ferran Adrià publicised his new agreement with the University of Harvard at the Gastronomic Forum in Girona this week. This year, the international, award-winning, Catalan chef,already hosted a seminar at the North-American university about cuisine and chemistry. Many Catalan chefs like Carme Rucalleda and Nadu Jubany gave lectures at this course. Now, Ferran Adrià has said that for the next 5 years, he will facilitate a course at Harvard, where he will go for at least 15 days per academic year. Adrià also announced that today’s conference was his last one for the next 3 years, as he wanted to focus on the new foundation where his restaurant ‘El Bulli’ will be transformed. He made all these announcements at the Forum Gastronomic, which started yesterday in Girona and will last until Wednesday. The Gastronomic Forum is the leading congress on cuisine and gastronomy in Catalonia, and is one of the most important of its kind in Europe, together with Madrid Fusión.

The agreement announced by Ferran Adrià is between the University of Harvard and the Fundació Alícia, which a foundation that investigates and promotes the link between cuisine and health. The Fundació Alícia is a project of Ferran Adrià. The prestigious cardiologist Valentí Fuster is also involved. The Fundació Alícia will organise courses on Cuisine and Science at the North-American university for the next 5 years. At the Harvard course on cuisine and science, many Catalan chefs will give lectures, like Carme Ruscalleda, Joan Roca, Nandu Jubany, Enric Rovira, and Carles Tejedor, among others.

In addition, Adrià accepted Harvard’s invitation to be guest lecturer for 15 days per academic year. Adrià wants to make “dialogues about creativity”, exploring the relationship between high-level creativity and happiness. In fact, Adrià will be already organising these dialogues at his restaurant “El Bulli”, which has been hailed the best restaurant in the world for years. He plans to host these dialogues once every 3 months, inviting top personalities to his restaurant. Then, Adrià will compile these dialogues’ conclusions and bring them to Harvard.

Ferran Adrià participated at the ‘Fòrum Gastronòmic’ (Gastronomic Forum), which is held in Girona. He gave a master class on cooking hunting meat. Before starting, assitants held one minute of silence in memory of the Catalan chef Santi Santamaria, who died 5 days ago in Singapore.

The Gastronomic Forum

The Gastronomic Forum started on Sunday and will last until next Wednesday. This event is a leading congress on gastronomy and cuisine, combining a trading fair with professional conferences, master classes and workshops. Organisers plan to congregate 30,000 attendees, including professionals but also the wider public. In total, there are15,000 square meters of exhibition space, split into 3 different scenes. Besides the programme for professionals, there will be activities for the wider public, such as tasting shows and workshops, suitable for all kind of ages. Among the international-level chefs attending the conference is the North-American Charlie Trotter and the Japanese Norisawa as well as the top Catalan chefs, Carme Ruscalleda, and Joan Roca, among others. However, there are also more anonymous cooks and gastronomy professionals that come from places such as Russia, Argentina, or the Dominican Republic. In fact, attendees come from all the corners of the world to enjoy what many value as a “complete” and “plain” fair, which is one of the leading events of its kind in Europe and the true showcase of the Catalan gastronomy and cuisine.