If Buergel - and many others - feel moved to view Ferran's - and his contemporaries' - exhibitionistic culinary creations, and indeed their preparation and presention, as art, then art is most certainly what they are. They may not immediately change the work to suit, but I'd be skeptical if they said a host of bad reviews didn't influence things in the rehearsal room.Īrt, to put it simply (and why not?) is work that moves individuals - it is not up to the experts to decide what constitutes a work of art the viewer decides. They do, of course, care about what the restaurant critics think, but any artistic director, actor or writer who tells you they don't care similarily about theatre critics is lying. Furthermore, many top chefs' belief in their own taste - coupled with a naturally artistic temperament and healthy ego - doesn't leave a lot of room for caring about their customers' opinions. I'm not convinced that the idea of crowd-pleasing subservience holds true in a world where skilled chefs are elevated to celebrity status with year-long waiting lists at their restaurants. Jones concludes that food can never be art, because chefs are cooking to please the customer, and says: "Until people go to a restaurant to think about death, cooking won't be art." I won't get into theories about art and death (but surely this is not art's sole function) on a food blog, but the first point is interesting, although - again - not necessarily true. In this atmosphere, the act of inviting Adria will be seen by some as an artistic act in itself (bear with me, I can almost hear your collective eyes rolling), and no doubt Roger Buergel, the festival's director, had the inevitible hoo ha in mind with the provocative invitation - and good on him for raising the debate. I love it when the arts world gets itself in a tizz about this kind of thing - there's a real snobbery about it. In art, and particularly in contemporary art, what is worthy to some will probably be so much nonsense to others, and all these ruffled feathers and assertions over what does and doesn't constitute art put me in mind of that most controversial of all our arts events. The arts community in Spain are said to be furious, with at least one critic outraged over this "banalisation of art".Īdria, a surprisingly affable and modest-sounding character for one hailed a culinary genius the world over, agrees amiably that people are annoyed at seeing a 'cook get invited to this' and demonstrates his playful side with the key question, the one you must surely know is coming: 'But what is art?' A question prompted by news that wonderchef, Ferran Adria, is one of only two Spaniards invited to Documenta, the five-yearly German art show.
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