Ferran

Book excerpt: The first-ever biography of Ferran Adrià, the chef behind Spain's renowned El Bulli restaurant, by one of the world's foremost food authorities. Ferran Adrià is arguably the greatest culinary revolutionary of our time. Hailed as a genius and a prophet by fellow chefs, worshipped (if often misunderstood) by critics and lay diners alike, Adrià is imitated and paid homage to in professional kitchens, and in more than a few private ones, all over the world. In his lively close-up portrait of Adrià, award-winning food writer Colman Andrews traces this groundbreaking chef 's rise from resort- hotel dishwasher to culinary deity, and the evolution of El Bulli from a German-owned beach bar into the establishment voted annually by an international jury to be "the world's best restaurant." With a new afterword for the paperback edition, Ferran brings to life the most exciting food movement of our time and illuminates the ways in which Adrià has forever altered our understanding and appreciation of food and cooking.