Photography: Christina Simons
Anthony Bourdain on trends in casual eating: “Joel Robushon is doing a more casual stuff in Paris. It’s a chef led thing and I think it’s good for the world to take a little bit of stuffiness out of dining.”He says the ingredients and technique are still impeccable but the eating is fun.
“Small plates are definitely a trend. England and America [and presumably Australia] will never have a Tapas culture like the Spanish because in order to have a Tapas culture you need to have a whole cluster of Tapas places in one area. The whole thing is that you move from Tapas place to another to another to another grazing, eating a couple of bites here a glass of wine here and then moving on to the next place.
“The idea of sitting down to a whole meal of tapas defeats the purpose. That being said ordering lots of small plates for your table and just grabbing on it is indeed a trend.”You need a whole Spanish lifestyle to really enjoy Tapas. You need to enjoy Tapas in situ to really get it.
Spanish more than any other country is affecting and influencing fine dining chefs.” I was very hostile to the whole idea of Ferran Adria until I started hanging out with him and I ate there. I think there is maybe there are three people who can get away with doing that food in this world right now. “I think it’s had a hugely destructive effect on fine dining, through no fault of its own.”
Will those ideas last? I think they probably will. I think he is going to single handedly change fine dining. It is a very casual experience at El Bulli. That should be remembered. It’s not a lot of silver and glassware and nonsense. It’s inexpensive. It may be a hard restaurant to get into but its inexpensive.
“Most of the food makes sense and tastes good.”